Kisses for Cover
by AudeTheThird
Summary: Darcy and Bucky are in this intense lovehate /thing/ - and Steve is the buffer. My OT3 Bucky/Darcy/Steve. Will continue, and up the rating, as needed. Updated regularly.
1. Chapter 1

"Hey, puddin'." Bucky caught her mouth before she could articulate a greeting, squashing her lips together with his thumb and forefinger. "Listen, buttercup, I know we got off on the wrong foot, and clearly we adore each other, but you're gonna pretend to be my girl for a little while, alright?"

She cocked a brow, shoved at his hand, and flicked her hair back from her face.

"And why the hell would I do that?"

"You get the benefits." he wiggled his eyebrows.

"I'd rather slam my head into a wall for an hour." she shot back, and made to step around him.

"See, here's my problem." he drawled. "Steve's brought his girlfriend over."

"Oh, _shit." _Darcy slapped her forehead.

"'Zactly."

The Blonde - Darcy outrightly disliked her - Jessica, or something, she had this _thing_. She and Steve were peachy keen, and they were perfect for each other and whatever, but she decided to focus her efforts on gifting that same stuff onto others without ever really knowing how, or if they wanted to or not.

Namely, Bucky and Darcy. When she'd seen a Bucky-Darcy face off, she had been convinced that they would never ever be right for each other, so she'd moved onto trying to set them up with her friends.

So far, her friends consisted of this guy that had given Darcy this disapproving once over, and his friend a 'yeah, you couldn't pay me enough' kind of look, followed by a professional student going on his seventh year in university. That guy was only topped by the near-mute writer who Darcy had honestly not minded, until she caught him stealing hair out of her brush and sealing it in little plastic doggy bags.

Bucky had suffered through about six different girls - all the matchmaker had to do was flash his photo and there'd be girls falling over themselves to match up with him. He had a lot of Steve's ideals about what his woman should be like, and while Steve and Darcy were great friends, Darcy and Bucky were not.

"And if I don't?" Darcy had thought that, maybe she'd get a one up, a boon from the super-pain-in-the-ass.

He shrugged.

"There's one for you in there too."

"Yeah, but maybe it's a good one, this time."

He snorted, putting a metal hand over his mouth.

"Yeah, okay. If you did gingers."

"Look, Buck-o, I'd take a ginge over you any day." she poked him in the chest. "I would not, ever, ever date you, not even pretend to. You're a vile, sexist, misogynist bastard. You're a bullshitter and a cocky-" she rounded the corner. Her ginger, Bucky's 'date', and Steve all looked up.

"Hey guys. Sorry I'm late. I forgot the vegan food, sorry, uh..." she searched for a name but none would come. "Yeah, work's been crazy."

She gave the ginger a once over. His face... was familiar. Her hand flew to Bucky's stomach - he let out a 'Oomph!' - then she grabbed his forearm and tucked her hand around it, positively beaming up at him.

"I couldn't stop thinking about you today. Got a little distracted." her nails twisted in his shirt, digging into his skin.

"Me too, baby doll." both Bucky's arms went around her shoulders, his chin propped on her head from behind - he'd sort of maneuvered her around so her back was to his front. There was something digging into her lower spine, something she prayed very hard would be his belt buckle. "And it can't help that you haven't been gettin' much_ sleep_, the last couple nights. Sorry about that, darlin'."

"Yeah, because you snore like a thunderstorm." she shot back, and patted his arms with a pretty smile directed up and over her shoulder. "It's endearing, dear, really. I need a shower and I'll be right with you. Sorry about the food."

"I'll be... also, showering." he looped an arm around her waist and kept her mild stride, then kicked her bedroom door closed behind him. She promptly smacked his arm away like it was leaking a noxious smelling pus. "So, babe, how's about it?"

"Touch me and I'll scream." she warned. "Steve will beat you up." she went to her dresser and started to pull out clothes, shoving them shut with her hip before he could peer inside. A pair of nice worn in jeans and a scoop neck tee that shrunk her waist and emphasized the sweater puppies... not like she was aiming to impress any one, they just made her feel good.

"You're a mess." he looked around at her grungy slice of heaven. "If this is gonna work, darlin', you 'n' I've got to clean this pigsty. I've seen barracks neater 'n' this."

"Don't push it, Barnes." she flipped her hair over her shoulder. "You're already in trouble with me, and you know it."

"Why?" his smile was utterly charming.

"You _know_ that guy has been creeping on me for months."

"Oh, is this the same one from that class you took in Stark Tower?"

"You know it is!" she was so annoyed. _So, _annoyed!

* * *

This wasn't the first time they had done the cover-up thing, though it was the first time both were aware of what was happening and willing to engage. When Bucky had first come to save the world with Steve he was fine - quiet, reserved. He kinda snuck around a little bit, but no one really begrudged him that, when they were told the short of his history.

Darcy had been chatting to the ginger in the programming class she took under Tony's say-so, when he started saying some pretty visual things, started getting a little close, and a little grabby. She'd stumbled out of the class trying to snatch her bag back from him (he'd wanted to carry it to her car for her) and bumped right into Bucky, who put both arms around her then.

"Oh!" she caught a fistful of his shirt, accidentally pulling it down to reveal his smooth, lickable chest. "Bucky! There you are, baby!" and because she had him by the shirt, she yanked him down another few inches and laid a kiss on him.

He was surprised but totally kissed her back - his hands caught her lower spine and the back of her neck and by the time they were done, she had been lowered into the kiss. The ginger had thrown her bag at her and there were a few people wolf whistling at them, so Darcy then picked up her bag and dragged him to an empty classroom, briefly explaining her dire situation before pecking his chin and skipping out with a merry: "Thanks Buck!"

* * *

A few days later he moved in with her and Steve, and he had been a gaping arsehole ever since.

"You know the drill. Sit." she shoved him on the bed, knocking his knees out from under him. He sprawled on her unmade bed like a pornstar, knees spread, looking out at her from half lowered lashes. The curl on his mouth was sinful.

"Join me?" he cooed.

"Don't touch anything."

"But baby." he caught the backs of her legs and pouted. "I've missed you all day."

"What did I say about touching?" she stepped over his hands, and he rolled his eyes. "Don't peek on me, Barnes, or you'll lose an eye to match your arm."

"I'd rather keep my lunch down, thanks, Lewis."

She glared, and shut the door with a tight snap behind her. There were no locks on the bathrooms, but she could open the drawers and wedge the door shut like that. With a satisfied huff, she disrobed and bathed as quickly as possible, scrubbing her face clean before stepping out of the shower, drying, and putting her comfy clothes back on.

When she emerged Bucky was now laying on her bed with his booted feet on her clean sheets, her favourite pillow tucked under his head, her glasses perched on his nose, reading a trashy romance novel she'd tucked between the wall and head board.

"Jesus, Lewis." he licked his finger and turned a page. "You must be lonely."

"How did you-?!"

"I'm a spy, dumbass." he looked at her over the glasses. "Also, I have super powers. Duh."

"Enjoying yourself?" she snapped.

He grinned.

"I'm reading your dirty smut fantasies. I'd say I'm having more fun than you. Put your face on, you're hideous."

"I hate you." she told him, and refused to put any make-up on, because of _principle_. "Give me my book back."

"-_'He guided her down to the bed like she was made of spun glass_,'" he read in a smooth, honeyed voice. "_Pressed his hardness between her legs to show her how much he wanted her, how much she was desired, and needed. She was breathless from his kiss, even more breathless from his apparent size_.' Oh, my. This is the story of my life."

"**Barnes**_**.**_" she snapped, and made a swipe from the book. He put his foot on her stomach to keep her away, and kept reading.

_"'It's been a while.' she bit her lip, suddenly nervous. 'How long?' he murmured into her collarbone. 'Nearly four years'. she whimpered as his fingers circled her most sensitive nubbin._' The hell's a nubbin? Do you have one of those?" he peered over her glasses with cocked brows. "Can I just find it for myself?"

"I swear to god-" she said through her teeth.

"Leave god out of this. My name is Bucky and you may say it as often as you like." and he moved his leg away, letting her pitch forward onto the bed, where he held both her wrists in his mechanical hand and kept reading.

"_'She was tight, tighter than she thought. One finger was a tease, two was a glorious_-' Oh this is such _bullshit."_

"Bucky!" she wriggled with viciousness, trying to sink her teeth into his arm. "Give me my book back!"

He flicked a few pages, then brightened.

"Oh hey, there's actually rutting in here. They're doing it in the store room. Class act, lady. D'joo and your man-friends ever-?"

"STEVE! STEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeVEEE!"

"Shhhh! Shut _up_." he let her out of the circle of his mechanic arm, rolling onto one side with her leg still trapped between his. "Have your damn book back." and he tossed it at her head, which missed only by an inch.

"You psycho Soviet son-of-a-bitch!"

Steve opened the door as she took her novel and cracked Bucky right over the head with it.

"What did you do now?" he just leaned against the doorway - Bucky probably had it coming, if Darcy was making such a ruckus. He had to intervene when he got her in a headlock, though, because they would only get more violent from there. With Darcy on one side, hugging her book tightly, and Bucky on the other, rubbing the red mark on his skull, they both started.

"She's in-freaking-sane-"

"He's a bastard-"

"Good God." Steve eyed the ceiling, wondering what the neighbours thought. "Help me."

"She's just upset because she ain't gettin' any-"

"He's a fucking bully, Steve!" she said shrilly, and slumped against his back with a dramatic hand to her brow. "He called me ugly! He stole my book!"

"Oh, come off of it."

"He called me fat!"

"Bucky!" Steve was scandalized.

"I didn't-! You're so full of bullshit, Lewis!"

"Steve, he called me ugly. Am I ugly?"

"Oh, that's rich. You know just how to play him, don't you?!"

"Did you call Darcy fat, or ugly, Bucky?"

"She's playin' you like a fiddle!"

"Did you steal her book?"

"C'mon, Steve, it's a rutty-romance piece of trash-"

"Bucky." he was wearing his supremely indignant Captain America face. "Cool off. You two are terrible. No, Darcy, both of you." he stepped forward and closed the door behind her.

"I didn't even-"

"Both of you are in this 'relationship'."

"Steeeeve." she fluttered her lashes.

"No. Both of you have decided to pretend to be in a relationship when my girl's gone to all the trouble of helping you two out. You two had damn well better act the part."

"Couples fight." Darcy informed him.

"They don't have to." Was Bucky's sharp retort. "What the hell kind of century is this?"

"Better one than what raised you!" Darcy flung the book at his head again, but he just leaned to the side and watched it sail through the air, over his shoulder.

"Darcy," Steve said patiently. "Come on, cut it out."

"He started it!" she threw up her hands. "I come home after a long day at work-"

"Come of it, Lewis!"

"Shut up! What have you done today?"

"Hmm, well, between taking out the super villain in Manhattan this morning and preventing Tony Stark from having his head forcibly shoved up his ass by Loki-"

"Like his head isn't already up his ass." she scoffed. "You probably would've done us all a favour if you had've just let it happen!"

"This is why I'm the_ hero_, and you push papers for a living."

She stomped her foot, turned back to Steven.

"He did call me ugly though."

"I did not." he cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed. "CALL YOU UGLY!"

"You said-!" she whirled on him, mimicking the hands-around-mouth-megaphone. "And I quote: "_Put your face on, you're HIDEOUS_." That means UGLY, Barnes!"

Steve sighed, and quietly let himself out. They weren't going to listen, as per the norm. If they got physical he would intervene, otherwise someone would end up hurt. That someone was always Darcy.

Bucky got up and rolled his eyes, sighing heavily, like it was the bane of his existence to be in the same room with her.

Darcy was not finished, however - she was still riled up over how easily he had dismissed her coming home from work, which he never appreciated, when in fact it was her that kept his PR to a minimum. Pepper handled Tony, Hulk and Thor, but Darcy did the rest. She could've very easily let his reputation hit the floor, but there she was, juggling his, Steve's, Natasha's and Clint's despite it running her into the ground from exhaustion and the new grey hairs at her temples.

Which is why, when he went to step around her, she stood in his way, hands on her hips, mouth pouted and brow cocked.

He put his hand on her shoulder to steer her away, and she shoved him hard in the chest. He didn't move, so she did it again.

"I'm not finished with you!" she said hotly. "You can't just dismiss me, Buck-o!"

"Watch me." he scoffed, and sort of shoved her to the side. She jumped on his back and planted her feet on the door frame in reply, trying to drag him back by force. "As much as I'm enjoying this, Darce, you're on the wrong side."

Her arms went from around his shoulders to around his throat. Which is probably why he backed into the room, slammed the door, and threw himself back on the bed. He twisted himself whilst still in the circle of her arms until he was facing her, between her legs, mouth in an unimpressed line.

She promptly let go of him and shoved at his chest, swearing her head off.

"You - make - me - so - mad!" every word was punctuated with a pointless shove. Part of her brain wanted to punch him in the face, while the other part wasn't thinking with her brain. "I - want - you - to - _listen _- to - me!"

"Alright._ Alright! _I'm listening. Quit swingin'." he knocked one of her wrists away and sat back, putting space between them by crawling off the bed. "Well?"

"You can't just dismiss what I do like that!" she started, sitting up. "I work damn hard to keep your name nice and clean! I work hard to pick up what Jane's talking about and what Tony's asking me to do with his tech and you can't just - write off my hard work - like it's nothing - LIKE I AM NOTHING!" she was now very frustrated.

The difference between Angry Darcy and Frustrated Darcy was that Angry Darcy would happily throw down, yell and scream, fight until she was okay again.

Frustrated Darcy's default was to cry.

"I never said you were nothing." he said quickly. "Hang on a sec - woah, Darce, Darce, please don't cry. Hey. Jesus, I'm sorry. Come on, doll, don't cry." he knelt, hands wavering, unsure weather or not he should touch her as tears brimmed on her lashes and she began to curl further and further into a ball on her bed.

"I'm not nothing." she repeated with all due vehemence.

"No, you're definitely something." he encouraged. He was all - worried looking, staring at her face without blinking. She'd never seen him unsure.

"Tell me I'm pretty." she demanded.

"You're pretty." he told her, then cocked his head slightly. "Don't you know you're pretty?"

"You told me I was hideous!"

"I didn't _mean_ it. If I had've known it hurt your feelings I wouldn't of said it, I was joking. I think you're gorgeous. Don't cry." he hands did that awkward between wiping her tears and looking like she was going to launch at him thing, and she giggled to spite herself, tipping the tears over her cheeks. "Oh- fuck's sake - I am sorry. You can cry if you want to-...Uh, here." he dug around in his jean pocket and produced a folded handkerchief. It had his initials emblazoned on the corner and everything.

She stared at it like it was going to burn her face if she used it, so he sighed, reached up, and blotted her tears for her, paying very delicate attention to her misery. Which of course, didn't help, so much as make her chin wobble and tears brim again.

"I'm sorry, baby doll, I am. You know you're pretty. Don't listen to me, I get mean when I'm hungry."

"I forgot the food." she said for apologies.

"Still woulda been mean. I hate that vegan shit." he waited until her chin had stopped it's wobble, then folded the hanky and tucked it into her fingers. "Are you alright?"

She didn't know how to answer that. Something had happened in those few quiet moments, and she wasn't sure what. It was like she was seeing him with new eyes, like crying had dislodged something that made her vision crystal clear.

"Yeah, I'm alright. Sorry I hit you in the head with my book."

"You got a nice right hook in there, Lewis. It was a good shot."

"It was." she paused, then a smile curled on her mouth, and it didn't stop until she hid it under her hand and started to giggle to herself. Bucky's expression warmed when he saw her laughing, his entire exterior relaxing, deflating, loosening up.

"There's my girl." he said warmly. "Thought I lost you for a second there."

"Never." She sniffed, raised her chin. "Takes a little more than the likes of you to scare me off, Barnes."

"That's what I like to hear." he was grinning at her, and she was smiling back, and it was a little bit romantic, if she forgot having smacked him in the head with her dirty romance novel a few minutes ago. She bit into her lip and his eyes flicked to it, maybe for just a second. His reaction made her mouth pop open in surprise, making him swallow a hard mouthful she watched bob his adam's apple on the way past.

"Hey Bucky?" she said slowly, managing to drag her eyes from his throat to his face.

"Yeah?" he said it a little roughly.

"Let's go out for some real food." she suggested lightly, but his eyes flicked between both of hers like he was reading something between the lines. "What do you say, solider boy? Gonna show me a good night out on the town?"

"Yes ma'am." he said, and promptly stood, offering his hand.

"I'll put some heels on." she said absently, and took the proffered palm.

He pulled her up into standing, and kept hold of her hand, head inclined so that his mouth was noticeably closer than it should have been in casual conversation.

"You don't need heels." he murmured. "I like you just as you are."

"Don't think I'm hideous?"

"Never have, never will." he let go of her hand, but it dropped to his chest. They hadn't been so close without screaming or fisticuffs since she first kissed him for cover. Something warm was twisting in her belly. She was trying hard not to chew on her lip.

"Shoes might be necessary, though." she said airily, but between the way she was holding onto his shirt and staring at his face, it didn't translate as calmly as she wanted it implied. "Go get your coat. I'll be out in a second."

"Better be. I don't wanna be set up with that woman. She's not wearing any underwear... A fact she kept on reminding me of."

So the boner she thought happened earlier was a boner. It was fine, until she realized it wasn't for her. Then it was ew.

"I see." she said lightly, and had to focus on making her fingers unroll from his shirt. "Well. That was before she knew you and I were a thing, so... I'll forgive her, I guess."

She stepped back, which effectively put space between them, but made her press against the bed.

"Any idea where we're going?" he asked politely.

"Somewhere with burgers bigger than your face." she replied instantly.

His grin was wolfish.

"Good news." he said, and started backing out.

She smiled a little shyly, took a moment to think about what had just happened, then pulled on a knee length black wiggle dress, a pair of flat gold-tipped shoes, a little foundation, and simple black winged eyeliner. She almost walked away from the mirror, when she saw her vixen-red lipstick, and applied it with methodical strokes.

She smacked her mouth, struck a pose and tossed her hair before leaving, scooping up her coat on her way out. She said a calm goodbye to the gang, apologising again for not feeding them, and met a speechless Bucky outside the front door.

It took him point five of a second to have her back in the door, claiming they had forgot something in Darcy's room.

And they had, really.

* * *

They left for dinner two and a half hours later, after everyone else had left.

The two dates originally signed up to Darcy and to Bucky had eventually wound up talking amongst themselves, and would later be the only couple Steve's then girlfriend matched together.

Steve and the then girlfriend had retired to bed after tossing a salad together.

Steve's tummy growled all night.

Bucky's did not.

* * *

I'm preeeeetty sure I want this to turn into a Steve/Bucky/Darcy thing, because they are my favourite kinds to read, but I need a little motivation, methinks.

How does it make you _feel?_

(I've been watching too much Hannibal to make it any sweeter, my bad.)

Thanks for reading!

Aude xx


	2. Chapter 2

Woah! The reviews were awesome. Send in requests, because as of now, this story is just doing it's own thing. I am making it up as I go along.

Aude xx

* * *

Darcy woke slowly, only because she could hear the sounds of a woman in distress. Usually, she'd assume Bucky was being an ass to his conquest of the month, but he currently had his face buried in her chest.

Upon further evaluation, the woman in question was not in distress at all, but rather screaming in anger. There was apparently another side to the conversation, but Darcy couldn't hear it. It sounded like she was on the phone, so she just put her cheek back down to Bucky's mess of bed hair, and closed her eyes again.

"Mornin' sugar plum."

"Ugh, your breath is rancid."

"Yours ain't any better, Lewis."

"Quit it while you retain your head, Barnes."

"Yes ma'am."

She rubbed his shoulder, where the synthetic skin met his more organic skin - the thick line of scarring and stitches that held him together. It was an odd feeling, the difference between warm, smooth Bucky and plastic that squeaked when she rubbed it a certain way. He pressed a kiss on her collarbone and ran gentle fingertips up her side in reply, nosing her sternum.

"If I had've known sleeping with you would turn off the animosity between us, I probably would've done it sooner." she mused.

"Yeah." he lifted his head, grinning, still half asleep. "If I hadda known your tongue did tricks like that in bed_ and _out of it-"

She smacked his arm. He kissed her face, pressing several smaller kisses on her cheeks before swiping his tongue on her bottom lip, then paused, hovering over her with a blank expression.

"What's up, buttercup?" she asked, watching his face, the flick and change of emotion.

"Jessica is in a fight." he replied.

"Yeah, heard that. Don't envy her phone guy."

"Phone guy?" he quirked a brow. "Darce, she's not on the phone."

"Then who the hell...?" it took her a second. "She's yelling at Steve?" she jerked, nearly head butted him. Would've, if he weren't a highly trained operative who sat back on his heels, which took the covers away from both of them.

Instead of being distracted by the naked, Darcy rolled out of bed and pulled on Bucky's shorts, tying the strings with hasty fingers.

"Gotta say, puddin', you make those look better'n I do."

"I'm gonna rip that _cow_." was her spat reply. "If I had've known she was talking to Steve like _that_-!"

"Like what?"

"You shoulda heard what she was saying earlier!" she was steaming. There had been some pretty colorful insults in there. Darcy had been storing them away for QuickFire use in later Darcy-Bucky showdowns.

"What are you doing?" he reached for his jeans. "You're not doing what I think you're doing, are you?"

"Do you hear what she's saying to him?" she demanded, pulling on her bra. She struggled only momentarily with the clasp at her back, making a frustrated growly noise until it clicked in place.

"Darcy, that's their business. Let 'em hash it out." he caught her shirt and tugged it out of her hands. "It's private."

Her hands went to her hips, brows shot up.

"I'm pretty sure it stopped being 'private' when she started upping the decibel, Buck."

And she promptly skipped out, before he could stop her. He followed suit, fully intent on tossing her over his shoulder and keeping her otherwise occupied until either the argument simmered down or someone left the unit, but then something smashed and Darcy broke into a run.

She hip and shouldered open Steve's door just in time to see Jessica push another picture frame off the wall, her face wet with tears, but with the most spiteful expression on her face. It was ugly, her rage, the way she wore it. She looked like she was close to falling over, she was crying so hard, and if Darcy hadn't seen the photo she'd just smashed, she would've been inclined to hear her side of the story.

The picture was of Darcy and Steve at a circus (although Clint was in the background, hanging upside down from the tent with two thumbs up,) and it was such a good photo of them both it was still Darcy's screen saver.

* * *

Steve had one arm around her, and was smiling wide on the camera, while Darcy had both arms around his waist, a bucket of fairy floss hanging off her wrist, and a sparkly butterfly painted on her cheek.

One side of his hair was scruffed up from where he had been wearing a cowboy hat he'd won at ring-toss - the hat was in his other hand, out of the frame, when the picture was taken. Bucky pointed and clicked the camera and then stared at the screen, while Darcy bounced over to see the result.

"Nawh, Steve!" She beamed up at him, her cheek glittering. "I love it so much! Thanks, Bucky."

"You're welcome." he said promptly, quietly.

"Did you get me?" Clint zoomed in on himself, barked a laugh, and showed Darcy, who swatted him and claimed she would never un-see him photobombing a perfectly good photo. "Ha! That's great. Now you won't forget me, kid!"

"Whatever, Cupid. Don't you have a flexible friend to find?"

"The Amazing Annabelle." he said with a grin and a wink. "Thanks kid. I'll be on my way."

"Uh huh." she just rolled her eyes.

Clint had been the one to mention her was going to the circus to begin with - to catch up with an old friend. It had only been a week since Bucky came back to his senses, and it was the first time he'd ventured out with Steve. The last time they had been to a circus together, it had been in another era. They were interested to see how it had changed, though Bucky was occasionally flinching, and had no idea why Steve had invited along the noisy lady friend.

"Oh! Hey, look!" she pointed to a booth with a red curtain. "It's an old timey photo booth! Oh come on guys, let's get some photos!"

Bucky thought it was dumb to pay for photos when he had a photo taking device in his hand, but Darcy insisted, and he didn't quite want to fight her on it. The boys went in the booth first, where the booth took a photo of them both looking equally oblivious.

Then Darcy crammed in there with the both of them - perched on Steve's knees. He put both forearms on her stomach, chin on her shoulder, poking his to the out at the camera while she made a fish face and Bucky just looked at them with a cocked brow like they were crazy.

The third photo, the one where Steve's eyes were scrunched shut and she had her hand over her mouth from laughing, the other arm around Bucky's shoulders to keep from falling off, that was Steve's favorite photo, the one he kept in his wallet. Bucky was starting to grin and he was watching the both of them, his eyes glittering, hand on her shoulder, supportive.

The last one, where Steve has a big sheepish grin, and Darcy is kissing his cheek, that was Bucky's favourite, personally, although he caught Steve smiling at it more than once. Her legs had been tossed over his lap and though Steve got majority of her attention in the picture, she'd left a big red lipstick kiss on his cheekbone, which was on display because he'd ducked his head to hide the naughty grin that cracked on his face.

That was about the time Bucky started to realize why Steve kept her around.

* * *

Bucky bent into a crouch, and had taken the photo that now lay scratched and covered in broken glass on the floor, dusting off the wreckage with his palm.

"What is your problem?" Darcy demanded. "What the hell is going on in-?"

Jessica whirled in a fantastic flip of blonde to jab her finger at her like she wielded a knife.

"You,_ you _stay out of this!"

"Ex-squeeze me?"

"Don't get involved!" Jessica all but shrieked. She slapped a hand to her throat like she didn't know she was capable of the noise. Darcy inflated, physically rising to the challenge.

"Bitch, you don't tell me what to do! You come in my house and start smashing shit and I'm going to get involved! Where exactly do you get off, yelling at Steve like that?!"

"It is_ none of your business_!"

"Like hell is isn't!"

Steve was on the bed, shirtless, hands folded in his lap, head bowed. He was covered only by a sheet - Bucky noticed the glass on the bed, the busted frame on his pillow, the suspicious healing mark on the side of his head. If Darcy saw, he was sure the matter would turn violent, that she'd break a law or two seeking vengeance.

She was that way inclined, he knew from personal experience.

"Get out." Bucky said darkly.

The girls stopped screaming. Steve lifted his head, and his eyes were sad, confused.

"No more'a this shit. You hear me?" he picked up Jessica's coat and tossed it at her head. She rose a hand to stop it from hitting her face, but she missed, and it wrapped around her head like it was sentient and trying to strangle her. "Get out."

Then the crying began. The moaning. The squarking.

Steve tried to say something and she whirled on him again, voice pitching, language appalling. Darcy started yelling at her then, with all the theatrical hand gestures she could make without smashing a book over someone's head.

Finally, the blonde looked between Steve and the remaining photo on his bedside table. Seeing that, Darcy skipped up onto the bed and fell into a bouncing kneel before Steve, arms folded over her chest like a shield.

"Of course _you_ would." the girl's bottom lip wobbled, by her eyes narrowed. She gathered a few more of her things - her phone charger and purse - and stormed out, just as Darcy put pressure on her knee and glass dug into her skin.

"What the what...?" she glanced down, saw the glass, the frame, and turned to see Steve looking as miserable as he was, turning his face away. She grabbed his jaw and steered his head around to see the mark, already mostly gone.

"Darcy, you don't understand." he said.

"I'll cut that-" she turned and launched, but Bucky caught her mid-air, and held onto her until the front door had slammed shut behind the evicted houseguest. He dumped her on the bed and she shoved his stomach, puffing from struggling with him, her hair all in tangles around her face. She sat back on her elbows, glaring at him, chest heaving, and jerked her head so that her mane got off of her face.

He just sighed, smoothed his hair out with his fingers.

"I'll get a broom." he said. "And shoes."

"Are we not going to talk about what happened just now?" she demanded, sitting up, spinning on Steve, who'd dropped his head into his hands. "Are we really ignoring this?"

"Darce, leave it." was Bucky's advice.

She did not.

"That unfriendly sow smashed something over your head, Steve! Why did you not do something about it?"

"Darcy." Bucky said shortly. "Quit."

"You can't tell me what to do just because we slept together." she snapped back, sending him a scolding look. "You don't _govern _me, Barnes. I am concerned for my friend."

"He doesn't wanna talk about it, dummy. And he was my friend first-"

"Really? That's the card you pull? And excuse you, _'dummy'_?"

"I've known him since he was a kid, I know he's okay!"

"I wanna know if he's okay from him, not you!"

"He's fine, look at him."

"You look at him! Are you on drugs? Does he look fine to you?!"

"He will cope. He's been through worse."

"That was before he had me." she said through her teeth. "Because that's how friends work in my era!"

He thought things had ended really well. But there was something in their chemistry that conflicted - when their tongues weren't otherwise occupied, they were sharp as swords, and aimed to wound rather than kill.

He simply turned around and went to retrieve a broom and shoes before the fight escalated any more than it had to.

"Steve?" Darcy's voice went soft, quiet. He was just sitting there, as small as he could make his matress-sized chest. "Oh, Steve. Honey, look at me?"

He rose his eyes very slowly. She reached out her hand - pressed gentle fingers to his head, where the mark of his abuse was fading, to his flushed cheek, and then to his hand, where she held onto his fingers.

"What happened?"

"It was my fault." he said quietly. "I uh... Had it coming."

"She smashed a frame on your head. No one has that coming."

It was like she'd reminded him of the incident she was most upset about - he looked around, pulled out a bent photo from under the broken frame beside his pillow. He smoothed it over his knee with careful fingers, smiling fondly at the image.

It was another photo of him and Darcy, but Bucky was in this one too. He was wearing the biggest, goofiest grin, and had each person under one arm. Bucky was mocking Darcy's typical pose, so naturally he was duckfacing at the camera and had both arms around Steve's waist, head to his chest.

Darcy, having seen that before Coulson had snapped the shot, decided to mock him in return by pulling a very serious face, standing straight, and saluting. It was incorrectly done, but Steve couldn't help but laughing at how fast she'd done it in retaliation. It was on his bedside table, the closest one to hand when Jessica launched it at his head.

"She thought I was -... That _we_ were going to end up together."

"And what, Bucky and me banging the headboard last night wasn't enough to convince her otherwise?" She quirked her mouth, but Steve remained sober.

"No, it wasn't."

"Steve-"

"I... The reason she wanted to set you up so quick, Darcy- she wanted to..."

"She thought I was going to what, sleep with you? Uhm, hello, everybody attracted to male genitalia wants to sleep with you..."

"I think - she was scared you'd steal me away. Heart and soul, more so than body." he paused. "I talk about you a lot. Probably more than I should. So, if you could just tell her nothing would ever happen, that I'm not your type, that you would... Never, with me... Maybe I can save what's left, if she'll have me."

"Steve, I'm not telling her anything." she promised him. "For starters, she isn't worth you, and you don't deserve this kind of dramatic tantrum throwing bullshit."

"She-... I do like her, Darcy."

"But you don't love her. And clearly, she doesn't love you. Jesus. I'm fairly certain Bucky could love you better than that bitter blonde -"

"Darce." he lifted eyes to her, and she stopped talking, eyeing his blush, not understanding it. "I just want it to work."

"No." she squeezed his fingers, relieved when he squeezed back. "You're my best friend, Steve, you'd make any girl happy, especially _this_ girl." she motioned at herself with her thumb.

"Don't ever talk about yourself like you are nothing. You're everything. To me. To Bucky." she smiled, a little wobbly around the edges. "We love you."

Bucky walked back in.

He saw them embracing, the blissed out look on Steve's face as he wrapped her up in his arms. They were touching skin to skin, her mostly naked chest and his completely bare one pressed against the other, though instead of making Bucky jealous, it made him feel warm.

It also gave him feelings south of his belly button.

Which made him intensely uncomfortable.

"Hey Darcy?" he raised brows at her, watched how slowly they released each other, like he hadn't even spoken. She hastened to wipe away a pesky tear that had fallen without permission, and Steve more gently smoothed over it with his thumb, his eyes flicking between hers like he was reading her mind.

"I think we need some coffee. And clothes'd be good too." Bucky swept a path through the glass and extended his hand.

She stood, walking on the bed, and took his hand, but he ducked forward and wrapped his arm around her bum, lifting her into the air and turning to walk her to the door. She made the most adorable noise and held onto him, and he shamelessly nuzzled her chest, before letting her slide down, 'till her feet hit the floor.

"I can do pancakes too?" she asked Steve, who smiled and shrugged. "It's no trouble. Pancakes for my boys. Good way to start saturday."

Bucky dropped a kiss on her head as she passed.

"Thanks, baby doll."

"Anytime, solider boy."

The silence that followed was pounding like a heartbeat. Bucky took a second to gather his thoughts as he started sweeping, and cast a look over his shoulder at how uncomfortable Steve currently was, there in a glass-littered bed, wearing nothing but a sheet.

"So... She adores you, huh." Steve began to protest, but he waved it away with his mechanical arm. "No, I get it. I mean, I... You're my best friend."

"Yeah, Buck... But I'd never steal your girl."

"I don't think she's my girl. Not entirely." he looked back down at the coarse bristles on the end of his broom. "I never met anyone like her, Steve."

"Yeah, I know. Me neither."

He decided to bite the proverbial bullet.

"Are you sweet on her?"

"I-..." Steve shrugged one huge shoulder. "She took care of me, Buck, like you used to, protectin' me from people like Tony or people tryna pull the wool over my eyes. I'm gonna be a little bit sweet on her."

"Were you ever sweet on me?"

"_What?" _At least the color was back in his cheeks.

"Well, she did for you all those things I did. I was just wondering. If it made you sweet on her, didja ever get sweet on me?" he swept the remaining broken glass into a neat pile. "I don't know. I just thought you mighta been. Thought it in the forties, for a bit."

"You... let us live together when you thought that about me?"

"Could'nt just throw you out. You got sick inside and under a blanket, let alone out in the wet and cold. You're still my pal, even if you were queer. Are a little bit queer. Couldn't blame you." And then, he flexed.

At Captain America.

Who responded by tossing a pillow at his head.

"The way I remember it, Buck, you invited me to live with you." Steve accused playfully, but the look he recieved in return wasn't playful at all, it was stone cold serious. He thought back to the few nights, back in the day, when Steve's heater broke and they had to share a bed so he didn't die in his sleep.

He thought back to how, on those few nights, they'd end up tangled together. At the time, Steve thought maybe he had a bit of hero worship for his room mate. But those feelings, that admiration he felt still... That wasn't admiration, so much as _adoration_.

He wasn't entirely sure what to make of that.

Bucky bent and scooped up the shards, focusing only on the repetitive work while Steve stared at the back of his head without blinking. He didn't know why he was feeling all _honest_. He suspected Darcy had been preaching so much queer-love at him the last few months she'd brain washed him, a little.

He didn't think he was a homosexual. He didn't look at other men and think things about them. Only things about Steve. Little things he could ignore, when he was weedy and ill and fragile.

But now he had grown up, into a body that was big and warm and soft... and Bucky left without saying another word about the subject.


	3. Chapter 3

"How is he?"

"In the shower."

There was a sizzle as she put new batter in the pan. She'd put her hair up into a messy excuse for a hairdo, where curls escaped the claw-clip at the top of her head to hang over her shoulder. She had a smudge of flower on her cheek and had pulled on a wafer thin tank top between leaving Steve's room and getting to the kitchen.

"You can have those." she nodded to the neat stack of fluffy golden pancakes.

"Gee, thanks, gorgeous." he spoke in a lazy drawl, one sarcastic enough to make her send a glare over her shoulder. "Oh c'mon. I thought we were friends."

"Do you put your tongue in all your friends?"

"You seemed to enjoy it."

"No problems there." she turned back to the pancakes, tucking hair behind her ear. "You're a giving lover, Barnes."

"One of my finer points." he mentioned with a wry smirk. He kissed her shoulder, the side of her face, putting hands on her hips. She just pressed the pancake down in the pan. "You look... Upset."

"I am upset. My best friend got beat up a lot when I was rooming with her and she'd start talking like Steve is talking now. All 'had it coming' and bullshit. I just - it upsets me that he's wearing this like it's his fault."

"Darcy, he is okay."

"No, he's okay because he got stuck with a bunch of needles that made any physical damage that little rat did to him go away, and it upsets me that you aren't gonna do anything about her just because he's got a penis - Ow!" she had meant to flip the pastry in the pan, but bought her arm down on the side of the hot metal, searing her skin instead.

Bucky clicked off the flame and inspected the burn, already shiny and red.

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow!" she flapped her other hand at it.

"Put it under water." he advised, and tried to put her arm in the sink, though it was already full of pots and pans. "Jesus, Darcy! You couldn't clean as you go?"

"I was a little more concerned with other things, asshole!" she tugged at her arm. "Let me go!"

He did, but she had been in the middle of yanking with all her might, and she stumbled back, falling on her backside. She had knocked a stray pan down in her flailing, and while Bucky caught it before it smacked into her head to add insult to injury, he tossed it over his shoulder with a roll of his eyes.

"Klutz." he mumbled, but she heard, and kicked him in the shin.

"Dick!" she shot back. "Just because you're partially invulnerable of the arm-!"

"Darcy." Steve was rubbing his hair with a towel as he made quick steps around the corner. He gave her the stern Captain America face that meant that she was about to broach some tender territory, then bent to pick her up.

He took her by the waist and effortlessly lifted her from the floor - the stretch of thin fabric across her ribcage came painfully apparent under the heat from his palms.

"I can't leave you two alone for five minutes." he said tiredly, taking her wrist to gently extend her arm, examine the burn. "Go have a shower, Buck. I'll keep an eye on things here."

He didn't look at Bucky. Bucky didn't even verbally acknowledge him, he just nodded and walked out, sending Darcy a side long look as he went. She was meaning to ask what had happened to make Barnes keep his tongue, but she was distracted.

"How does it feel?" Steve asked, reaching for the freezer. He retrieved an ice pack, single handedly wrapped it in a paper towel - he remained holding onto her wrist like she would bolt if he let go. "This might sting a little."

She hissed through her teeth as he applied the ice to the burn, screwed up her nose and turned her head away.

"Okay?"

"Stings." she looked at his brow, which was unmarked from abuse, only damp from his shower. He smelt like apples and yum. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, Darce. I'm fine." he even smiled, but that was when he let go of her wrist, so she knew he was lying.

"For the record," she mentioned, pressing the pack lightly on the burn. "I hated her."

"It was dully noted."

"I didn't like how clingy she was with you." she said for explanation. "It seemed suffocating."

"I liked it."

"I don't believe that."

"Well, I did. Having her around all the time, it was nice. When you're alone for seventy years, conscious or not... You can never have enough people around." and almost as if he never meant to say it out loud, he added quietly: "You never get sick of warmth."

Her heart was breaking. The look on his face was so matter-of-fact. Why hadn't she thought of that before? No one just lost everyone they knew and loved - barr maybe one other super solider with a synthetic arm - and came out of it okay. She'd been so selfish, to think that he was back to normal.

"Oh, Darcy, I- did I hurt you?" he took the ice off her wrist to see to injury. She put her hand over it, as if hiding it from sight might somehow protect him.

"No, I'm okay. It's just..." she had suddenly understood why he was willing to put up with surprise visits at ungodly hours or inconvenient times; why he was more than happy to make room for her stupid questions on _their_ movie nights- or why he tolerated her pitchy voice, insistence that he ate food she liked, went out with her friends instead of staying home with his.

He was trying desperately to keep himself around people to reaffirm he was alive.

"Darcy?"

She put her face and his chest and hugged him, dropping the ice pack (because hugging Captain America with ice was probably really fucking insensitive,) and damned the pain in her arm. She hugged him with fistfuls of his shirt in her hands and nothing short of climbed him like a particularly receptive jungle gym to make a point of holding onto his person. He hoisted her up, hugged her tight, sighing so she could feel his chest expand, contract, the warmth of his breath settling over her skin.

"I am never going to let you be alone." she said into his ear. "Ever. Okay? Never. I promise. It will be so annoying. You'll be sick of me, promise on my life, you'll never want to be away from someone so much, ever. I'll stick on you like that super glue Tony made last year-"

He was nodding because he couldn't speak without fear of his voice crackling.

"Like a drag queen and glitter, okay? I love you, Steve, you know I do. And I'm going to quit on you, ever, so don't just settle for someone because she's always around. Be happy, fall in love with someone who deserves it- who doesn't love themselves like that skinny bitch does, okay? Do you hear me?"

She waited for him to confirm, but he was just nodding.

"That's an order, solider!"

"Yes ma'am." he said quietly, into her shoulder. His arms tightened fractionally and she had the bright idea of putting her knees around his waist. There was a moment of instant regret - nothing quite like climbing a mostly damp captain America to remind you of your libido.

But she stayed there, and he allowed it, flexing his melon sized biceps to adjust to her weight. She didn't forget about Bucky or what they'd done, she just held onto Steve. He ran a hand over the back of her hair, which made her lean into it, make a contented noise.

"I love you too, Darcy. You always tell me and I never tell you, but I do." he ventured softly. "I never told anyone that before."

"Feels good, right?"

"Yeah. It does." He cocked his head - something she was acutely aware of, when he was mere inches away - and listened for the pipes that banged, signaling the turning off of water. "Bucky's out of the shower." he relaxed his hold.

She did not.

"Don't care." she mumbled.

"Darcy." he chastised lightly. "This looks bad."

"I don't care."

"I do." he leaned back to try and see her face, but he was smiling slightly. "He's my best friend, and you're his girl."

"I'm not his girl. I'm my own girl. I'll hug who I wanna."

"This doesn't look like a hug."

"Not my problem."

He sort of shrugged to let her down, though she made a valiant effort to make like a koala and cling to him. She dragged down his body slowly with a pout and big puppy eyes, which made him smile a little. Her arms wouldn't unwind from his neck, so when her feet touched the ground, it was because he bent to compensate the height difference.

"I meant it." she told him sternly. "Never letting go, Jack!"

"... Is this another music reference?"

"Movie. Oh my god. We have to watch it. It's actually from around your era, have you heard of the Ti-..." she thought about the implications of showing him a movie whereby the lead male character was frozen to death. That might have been the reason she hadn't actually shown him the movie in the first place. "...I don't know. Let me think about it."

"Okay." he chuckled, tired, against her throat. His hands had settled on her wrists, almost to pry her off, but his traitorous thumbs just stroked the fragile bones in her hands to keep her there. "You do that."

He smiled at her, and she hugged him again.

"Love it when you smile at me like that, Steve." she told him dreamily. "Makes me all warm and melty."

He laughed, but it was only because he had no idea what to do with that information.

For the second time that day, when Bucky walked in on them, he felt no jealousy - but the same strange warmth in his gut. Part of him was irked, maybe, that he was left out again, but he was not feeling what he should've thought he would feel, upon walking in on his best friend and girl hugging again.

He propped his shoulder against a wall and observed for a second.

"Uh," Steve picked up on him, glancing in his general direction. "I should go. Gonna go for a run."

"Oh!" Darcy finally let go of his shoulders. "Take me to the gym, go on a treadmill. I've been meaning to, you know- flex." She curled her arm as if to evidence her profound muscles.

"You hate excercise." Bucky accused with a snort, brows peaked. "And you hate gyms. And gym junkies, like me, if I remember right."

"If you took your shirt off more often it might change my mind." she shot back. "'Sides. I'm sick of you face, and after the shenanigans this morning, I don't want to leave Steve alone. Problem?"

"Darcy, I'm okay." Steve touched her hand lightly, interrupting an argument before it started. "Really. I'd like to go by myself."

She was almost a hundred percent sure he was lying. She studied his face for any trace of untruth, and although she found some, it wasn't totally a lie.

"If you really want to." she said slowly, and kissed his cheek. "Come home soon though, okay?"

"Okay." he smiled down on her again, and she just about swooned. "I'll be about two hours."

"Make 'em count. I plan pizzas tonight." she stepped aside and let him pass, pull on his shoes.

Bucky just watched him, the way he kept his back turned the entire time.

"See ya round, Rogers." he said tightly.

Steve's shoulders raised like hackles, but he didn't comment. He just picked up his keys from the dish and shut the door behind him. Darcy did not leave it unnoticed. Bucky had always called her Lewis; it was something he did with everyone else but Steve. And the fact that Captain America hadn't answered?

Not okay.

"What was that about?"

"Nothing. Had words."

"You always have words." she said, and propped hands on her hips. "What words?"

"Private words." he cocked a brow at her. "You've got pancake face, you know that?"

She sighed shortly, bent down to pick up the ice pack and it's damp paper towel, using that to wipe the crust off her cheek. She binned it, then applied the pack to her burn again, gritting her teeth against the sting.

"How does it feel?" he asked, leaning his butt against the counter,looking over it at her first aid work.

"Like I burnt my arm on a fry pan." she said with a non-committal shrug. he took a deep breath, then met his gaze, waiting until he looked up from the burn to her face. "So, are we going to talk about us or are we just going to ignore that, too?"

"What about us?"

"Well, we had some pretty amazing sex."

"Well, if you wanna talk about that, I've never been able to shut you up, Lewis. Can't imagine that's going to start now." she pulled an unimpressed face. "What's there to talk about?"

"Well, I don't know. Where do we go from here?"

"Easy. Bedroom."

"Kinda vanilla, isn't it? Been there done that, haven't we?"

"Fine, Steve's room, whatever does it for ya, doll."

"Ugh." she flicked her hair. "But seriously. I-... Do you want me as your girlfriend? Because you keep talking to me like it's already a thing."

"Did you wanna be my girl?"

"Bucky-"

"Darcy."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Look, Barnes, I had fun last night."

"You're not too bad yourself, sugar plum."

"But you and I? Not a good idea."

"Why not? We get along _fine_."

"No we don't. We screw around like pros, I'll be honest, but in clothes, just you and I..." she gave him a serious look. "We last all of five minutes before someone loses it, I'm literally counting the seconds right now. And I mean, this isn't the forties-"

"What?" he opened his eyes wide, looked around. "It's-... Not the forties?"

"Funny, smartass. I'm saying it's totally cool if we just..." she bit her lip. "Sleep, together. That way you can keep looking for your perfect pin up and I...-"

_I don't get hurt. Plus, sex!_

"Lewis," he drawled, now looking at her like she'd said something very stupid. "Let me tell you something. Put you in a little dress and some red lips and you're a perfect pin up girl. I don't mind fightin' with you, either, when it gets you all hot 'n' bothered like it does. That's my perfect pin up girl in a nutshell." he rose a brow at the blush on her face, the way she quite suddenly averted her gaze.

"But you don't wanna be_ my_ pin up girl?"

"It'd be easier, this way." she told him.

"So, let me get this right, I get all of you come the night time, and wake up to none of you?"

"Well, there's no reason we can't do it in the day."

"It's offending my old world sensibilities." he teased. "That must be why we'd be such a shambles!"

"I'm serious, Bucky." she lifted the ice-pack, put it on the bench, before she froze her hand off. "We'd tear each other apart."

"No we wouldn't." he scoffed. "We don't as is. I mean, last night - before, you know, _us_ - we were biting, sure but, not drawing blood."

"You drew my blood." she reminded him in a mumble, and pointedly stated at the floor between her feet.

"Oh, geeze, Darce." he rubbed the back of his neck. "That - that l, didn't mean, you know. I like fighting with you, but not like that. That just - accidently happened."

"But it did happen and it'll happen again. And there's something about you- I wanna _punch_ you. In the _throat._ All the time." and she had this face on that pretty much mimicked the truth. "But I don't want you to... Leave, or like... Move out. I guess that means I like to fight with you too. So, this is good. This can work. We can fight and screw and it'll be great."

He thought about that for a minute. It didn't sit right in his chest, the way she was being so casual about sleeping with him. He may have got around back in the day, but he'd always wanted to pursue good, honest relationships with his ladies. He was sure, after they had finished up the night prior, that all the kisses and cuddles and touching was legitimate, that she just_ wanted_ to be touching him in soft the way she had. He thought she had felt that fire burning too.

He'd slept like a brick all night. He hadn't done that since before the war started.

"What about Steve?" he said abruptly.

"What about him?"

"Well," he cocked both brows at her. "You two are pretty touchy feely. You told him you loved him, and be said it back."

"Did you hear that?"

"Yes, spy, we've been over this before-"

"That doesn't explain how you can hear things from other rooms, in the shower!"

"I've also mentioned the super powers." he smirked at her, and it made her think about punching him in the face. "So. You love Steve, right? Why don't you just be with him?"

"I-...I do love Steve. But- you can't just casually suggest I start dating Steve, when we're talking about sleeping with each other!"

"Why not?" he shrugged. "Sexual progression, and all that. You're the one that keeps yapping about it. He's sweet on you, anyway."

She frowned slightly.

"Aren't _you_ sweet on me?"

He chuckled, and she envisioned a throat punch.

"I don't get sweet on any body, baby."

"So what do you call it when you like someone?"

"I like someone."

"That's dumb." she screwed up her nose at the idea. "And when you really like them, its 'like, like'?" she snorted. "You aren't five, Barnes. How do you communicate if you want to stick your tongue in their mouth?"

"When I want to stick my tongue in someone," his grin was wolfish, and his eyes flicked south of her belly button. "They know it. _Trust_ me."

Heat filled her chest, but she refused to be distracted. Even though she was staring at the tongue in question, and her hands had developed a reflexive sweat from the beating of her palpitating heart.

"So, classify it. You're not sweet on me...?"

"You and sweet don't typically go together."

"What do you _want_ from me, Barnes?"

He shrugged.

"I like you, Lewis. I like sleeping with you. I like fighting with you. You make me feel normal, and hot, every time you open your mouth, something happens that I like. But that's just how _I_ feel. I know you and I fight, but Steve sort of, softens it out, doesn't he? And I mean, he lives here too. We could still be together and have it work."

"In theory." she said, and took a moment to think. "We can't expect Steve to monitor our lovers tiffs."

"And he's been doing what, waiting on baited breath for us to get along? He knows the drill. When to step in. When one of us toes the line, he just _gets_ it. Because you're like me, darlin', you don't back down easy." he cocked a brow. "You look unsure."

"You're the spy." she said flatly. "You tell me."

He did nothing, he just rolled his eyes and waited for her to continue speaking.

"I guess... I mean, we can try, if that's what you want. If you don't want to date, that's what I'm saying - I'm cool with just, screwy-happy-fun-time. We both work pretty well at that."

He frowned a little, pushed off the bench to stalk around to her side. He didn't look angry, but she still felt the need to take little steps back.

"In what world do you think I don't wanna try and be with you, Darcy?" he reached out, caught the bottom of her chin with a hooked forefinger. He steered her face up carefully, scrutinizing her carefully maintained expression. "In what world would I let you outta my arms that easy?"

"You _just _suggested your best friend as a suitor. Literally the closest guy you could find. Makes a girl think twice."

He lost his look, put his hands on her biceps.

"If it'd make you two _happy_. He deserves a girl who's gonna look after him like you do. And you're due some good in your life - and trust me, no one's better than Steve. If you two would be happier together than if you were with me, then you two should just knock boots already, jesus."

"Steve's still a virgin." she told him frankly.

"Well you're definitely not."

She hooked her fingers in his shirt, and he cocked a brow - he had been expecting a kick, or at least a scathing comment.

"Does all that romantic crap do it for you, baby doll?"

"Only when you do it, solider boy." and she pulled him down for a kiss that rendered him breathless.

* * *

Steve did not know what he expected when he came home. It was the first time he'd left the two alone since that one incident when Bucky had Darcy in a headlock for calling him a _grammar nazi_.

He was sweating profusely, most of it from the workout, some of it from the nerves of being alone. He felt a cold wound at his heart where there was none, an anxiety only soothed when he pushed the door open and knew there were people inside. He'd only been gone forty five minutes, so they should still be in one piece.

The good news was, they were in one piece on the couch.

_Collectively._

He didn't think the super solider serum would allow for a heart attack, or problems with asthma, but he was almost entirely sure he was going to burst a blood vessel, pop a lung, or something. The strange thing was, he was sure Bucky would've heard him, but he was kind of preoccupied.

They were side on, and while Steve couldn't see much, he saw _enough._

Darcy was holding onto one of Bucky's shoulders with clawed hands, bouncing in his lap with her other hand holding onto her chest. Bucky's fingers were buried between the neat hairs in her crotch, and he had her free breast in his mouth, sucking, teething lightly at her nipple.

Her hair clip had long since fallen out, leaving her hair to tumble down her spine, swinging with the momentum of their sex. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was rolling her body, squirming, making the neediest noises - her bottom lip was bitten between her teeth, swollen and red looking.

Bucky had a handful of her backside and he squeezed, bringing her rhythm to a stuttering halt, just holding her tight, hip-to-hip. Steve thought he was doing it for decency's sake, but he was very wrong.

"Buck- Bucky- Please-!"

"Wassamatter, sweetheart?" his voice was rough, like gravel. "C'mon, baby, tell me, tell me what you want, hm? What do you _need_?"

She was nodding, moaning, and his forefinger rubbed over her. She struggled, bucked against him hard, putting her head down to his shoulder and whimper:

"Bucky, Bucky, _Bucky_, please, please, _please_, I need it- I need to _move_ - _Move_ -"

All the while, she tried in vain to catch her breath, to wriggle, to gain friction. Her hand dropped from her chest and went to the back of his head, to try and steer his mouth to her neck, but he was quite content making marks on her shoulders and collar bone.

"Jesus, please, let me _move_-!"

Steve thought about maybe, making some noise, or leaving quietly, before either one of them saw him. But Bucky did see him, looked him right in the eye and picked Darcy up around the thighs, making her hold onto him the way she'd been holding onto Steve earlier.

And instead of moving, Steve was _still watching_.

She was trying to gyrate her lower half, but his hands were holding on too tightly for her to do it.

"_Fuck me_-" she growled, made a bolt of hot white pleasure jolt through Steve's hips. "-_Properly._"

"How would you like it, ma'am?"

"Now. I want it _now._"

He dropped her on the bench, had her perched just on the edge, with only his tip just prodding her. She couldn't do much about that the angle she was on - which he knew, in advance. Her nails left long red welts as she clawed down to his hips from his shoulders. His upper lip pulled up in a feral sneer, but it was more grin than grimace.

"Now, _solider_." she said through her teeth. "I want you, _right the fuck now_."

"Yes ma'am." he said, and impaled her.

It took Steve a second to realize that the screaming noise was not Darcy or something he imagined, but the door handle bending under his palm. Darcy flipped her hair, frightened, staring over her shoulder at him - but Bucky didn't stop. It just so happened that the same second Darcy's glazed eyes met Steve, she came.

She rode it out, gasping, toes curling, as she dug her heels into Bucky's backside to bring him in closer. Bucky finished two pulses in, staring at Steve likewise over her shoulder, his teeth marring her skin.

Darcy's breath was already lost, but not it was heaved, as she scrambled to pull on Bucky's jacket and cover her chest.

There were times in Darcy's life when she was sure that the fates were conspiring against her. When Thor happened, she was almost entirely sure she was on their radar.

But now, with Bucky still _in_ her, still squirting his baby gravy into her shivering, contracting self, while Steve stood there, totally bewildered, rocking the sweaty jock look like no one's business - she had her doubts that anyone was ever paid attention to by the gods.

Because it was comical, but it was terrifying. She shoved Bucky from out between her legs and promptly folded them, pressed her knees tight together.

"Steve-" she said, strangled, hoarse. "Steve-..."

But she didn't exactly know what to say next.

* * *

Little bit nervous about the sex.

Thoughts?

Aude

x


	4. Chapter 4

"I'll just... Go." Steve blinked once, twice, then shut the door. For a prolonged moment, he stood there, his heart pounding so loudly he could hear it in his ears. Then he heard Darcy-

"Oh, my god, oh my god, oh my god, we broke Captain America!"

"Eh. Nothin' he hasn't seen before."

"Seen of you!" her voice had pitched and she sounded muffled, as though she'd put her hands over her face.

"It's alright," Bucky sighed. "I'll talk to him."

Which is when Steve started backing away, staring at the deformed door handle. He turned and vaulted the railing of the stairs, landing in a safe crouch two floors down. He stood, still blinking widely, and started to trot down the stairs.

All he could think of was Darcy's skin. The noises she made. The way Bucky handled her womanhood, the rhythm in his fingers. The grunting, the moaning, how he'd wanted to march over there and suck her lip into his mouth, taste her. How he wanted to taste Bucky.

"Steve- Steve, hang on a second." Bucky didn't vault the stairs, but he did jog down them, catching the blonde in a matter of seconds. His shirt was open and he wore no shoes, only in jeans, a thin sheen of sweat on his collarbone, alongside healing teeth marks.

He _reeked _of sex, and until then, the scent hadn't been one Steve had committed to memory.

"Not now." he said, and shoved past him without looking.

"I said _hang on a second_-" Bucky grabbed his wrist.

Steve nearly dumped him the few extra floors down. He very briefly, though very honestly, considered tipping him head over heels to crack his skull on the floor, maybe knock some sense into him. As it was, he had him in fistfuls by his now ripped shirt, tilted back over the railing. His hips were jutting forward and Steve was entirely aware of the fact that he was rubbing up against him.

He couldn't look him in the eye, though, just focused on a stray smudge of saliva on his chin.

"Steve." he put his hands up in surrender.

"Why would you do that?" he glanced up at the brunette's expression, to try and gauge what his excuse was. Bucky looked sympathetic, but not apologetic. "Why would you let me-?... Why would you do that to Darcy?"

"It was a mistake. It's not gonna happen again." he shook his head. "I was just - _close_. You ever been asked to put off an orgasm, Steve?"

Steve looked at his fists, how far he had put Bucky over the edge of the stairs. He had really, really wanted to hurt him, but now, he really, really wanted to shut him up. He wasn't sure if they were the same thing. All he knew was, Bucky needed to close his mouth before he would do it for him.

"No." he murmured, uncurled his hands, and stepped away.

"Yeah, well. Try it sometime. I didn't want her to see you but I, I didn't care, I needed to uh... And I thought you'd walk off."

Steve colored, and his hand shot up to nervously rub the back of his neck. He'd thought it was some kind of perverse thing, Bucky had done. Maybe stake his claim on Darcy, or something, mark his territory. But Steve had watched, stood there like a stunned mullet and warped the door handle instead of doing the right thing, and leaving.

"It won't happen again, Steve." he promised. Steve nodded, looking at his sneakers.

"It had better not." he said lowly, and started to walk away. He paused, however, damning his noble sensibilities, and how much he cared. "Darcy sounded...upset. Is she okay?"

"Eh. She'll live." Bucky shrugged, took the shreds of his shirt in hand, and inspected them. "So uh... You gonna come back up now?"

"First, I wanna know, what exactly are you meaning to do with Darcy?" Steve demanded, turning around. He picked a spot over Bucky's shoulder and glared at that. "What the hell's going through your head, Bucky? You and her fight more'n any one I know, and you're what, _canoodling_?"

"I said we could make it work, 's'long as you were around." he said, flat out. He put his hands in his pockets, dug them in deep. "I told her, when we fight, it's not such a bad thing. We just get a bit caught up in being right. You know me. And her, we don't back down, so when we disagree on somethin'..."

"You were never like that with any dame I ever saw you with." Steve told him flatly. "Never put a girl in a headlock before."

"No one'd ever called me no Nazi before." his upper lip pulled back in a nasty sneer.

Steve just sighed, looked back at his shoes. He and Bucky disagreed on thing the entirety of their lives, and he had never, not once, been in any kind of mean fight like he was with Darcy. But she handled it, reciprocated, met him blow for blow. He remembered the height of their love making, they were still fighting, still struggling with each other, and wasn't surprised.

"Yeah. Okay." he shuffled his shoes and turned back to the stairs in the direction of their apartment. "But Buck, try remember she's a lady, would you? Don't... Be so mean."

"When we're alone, I'm plenty nice." he gave Steve a wolfish grin and skipped back. "Race you?"

"Not in the mood."

"Scared I'll whoop you?"

Steve feigned disinterest until Bucky lost his grin. Then he shoved him and took the stairs three and four at a time. Bucky almost caught him, too, but missed by an inch, swiping at his heels and missing as Steve's hand hit the frame and he declared himself winner.

* * *

Darcy was totally cool with the boys being fine and dandy when they came back, although she had started to nervously talk at them, with her dressing gown wound really tight around her body.

Bucky had a particular bounce, though, and Steve had yet to make eye contact with his long time friend. After Steve had apologised for just standing there - Bucky used the word '_voyeur_' and Darcy smacked the back of his head - they broke the frost that had formed in the apartment and went back to mostly normal lives.

Starting with Darcy needing a shower and Bucky beating her there.

She smacked the door with a closed fist.

"You've been in there for twenty minutes! I need to wash my hair, Barnes!" He'd gotten all sorts of bodily fluids in it. It was currently piled on top of her head in a rat's nest to hide the fact. "You're gonna take all the hot water!"

"Join me." he offered, and she watched the door handle twist, the door swing open. His arm was dripping at the elbow, and he cocked an amused brow at how her eyes picked a water droplet from his hair and followed it's descent from his brow to his jaw, to his chin, to his chest, and lower.

"I'll pass." but that water droplet had just rolled into the crease of his protruding hip bone, and she was admiring the view.

"You're not convincing me." he said, and retracted his arm. He stuck his face under the spray for a moment, and when he resurfaced, chuckled. "You're gonna catch flies, standin' like that, gorgeous."

"Uh huh." it'd be worth it. Was she really sleeping with this man? The one who could pass as a model? All rippled and toned and especially _cocky_? When he'd accused her of hating gym junkies, she meant the intensity of the lifestyle, and how they made her feel unmotivated and jiggly. She would totally put up with that to date one, in future.

"There's enough room in here for two. Or three." he wriggled brows at her, which is when she closed the door, after a prolonged stare at his abs. He flexed and posed accordingly, until the door had shut and the steam stopped wafting into her face.

She walked out in a sort of daze - she found Steve sitting in his stanky sweatpants, staring aimlessly at infomercials. When he'd first started living with her, he'd wanted to try out all of the gadgets and gizmos he could afford. They had a cupboard full of situationally useful things, some of which Steve made excuses to use on a regular basis.

Having problems cutting all your vegetables into neat, bite sized pieces? Slice'N'Dicer!

Dusty window panes? Go-Duster!

Something spilt? SHAMWOW!

He still thought Darcy's snuggie was stupid, though, and that hurt her feelings.

"Steve, please don't start splurging on sets of ten Ginsu Knives. We have good knives."

"But they can cut through tin cans." he said with a mostly embarrassed grin in her direction.

"We don't need one of those," she said with a big smile. "When you peel tin cans open with your bare hands for funsies."

"Yeah, but, what if I'm not always around?"

She plopped down beside him on the couch.

"I'll find a big tough man to look after me." she said with a serious face, but cocked brow. "All this boob has gotta be good for something, right? All about getting a strong, manly man to open things for me, and reach things on high shelves?"

Steve looked at his knees, blushing. He recalled vividly how perfect her breasts were. He'd open a million jars if she so much as batted her eyelashes at him again.

"You're more than a pair of...breasts, Darcy." he said mildly, though he couldn't quite look in her direction. "I'm sure you'd work it out."

"Yes, the mighty battle of the can and the can-opener. Someone tell Thor of the ballad when I'm gone."

Steve chuckled, and glanced at her, smiling so easily on him. She didn't smile like that for Bucky, and she told him that when he smiled for her, it made her feel... things. He was having a lot of feelings. He couldn't get the way Bucky's eyes had stared at him so intensely over her shoulder. It hadn't been a '_patiently waiting for you to leave_', look... It had been what Bucky once called his 'Bedroom Eyes', the look he used to charm women into their bedrooms.

Steve didn't know if it was working on him or not.

"Hey." her hand touched his shoulder, and he jolted. Her hand had clawed Bucky's shoulder. "What's going on in your head, there? You're scowling at your infomercials."

"Nothing, I'm okay." he smiled for her, saw the devastating effects on her, how it made her melt. "I was just thinking."

"What about?"

He'd never been a good liar.

"...Jessica."

"Hmph." she didn't look like she believed him, but she still carried the conversation. "Good things, bad things?"

"Uhm, just everything...s"

"Uh huh. Are you thinking _'she's a heartless bitch and I hope she chokes on the next dick in her mouth'-" _Steve choked on his own saliva. "-Or are you thinking _'I totally deserved to have something smashed on my head'?"_

He swallowed. Darcy rarely fired up with him over anything - only Bucky got that rise out of her. He'd seen her start talking about things she was passionate about, and she talked fast and smart. For a guy with a brain full of super solider serum, he was a little bit intimidated by her spinning facts at him like she did when provoked.

"I... Was not thinking either of those things." he said carefully. "I was just thinking about...Why she was so upset to begin with. And that -"

"Steve, don't start this self pitying, self sacrificing, save-the-world bullshit -"

"Darcy, please, listen." he implored her, actually turned around in his seat to have her full attention. "That _was_ my fault. She had a right to be mad. _Listen._" he repeated, when she opened her mouth to argue. She had that familiar line between her brows, that angry crease she got when she was gearing up to fight with Bucky. So he knew to cut her off, as impolite as it felt.

If he wanted to be heard, he'd have to speak first.

"I-... We were in bed together. You know Jessica was a bit, sensitive, about her bed-life, and I... Well, you know me. So we were just- holding, each other, just layin' there. It was nice. We were both half asleep, you know? I was mostly asleep. I didn't sleep much all night, I was-" _Hungry_. "-I didn't sleep well, last night. But I uh, was mostly asleep, and she woke me up by stealin' all the covers, and usually I'd wake up fully and say 'Good morning, Jessica', but I said - I accidentally said another girl's name." he couldn't make himself look away from her overly expressive face.

She was so intent on hearing his story, so captivated by what he was saying. She cared a lot for him, and it was evident in how she didn't just stare at him like a piece of meat. If any one would know what it meant to be appreciated for brains rather than for brawn, it was Steve, and he recognised it in that moment.

It probably stood to reason the next words out of his mouth were:

"I accidentally said: 'Good Morning, Darcy'."

She let a little: "_Oh_." out into the world, reclining in the couch like she wanted it to swallow her whole.

"Yeah. So, she had every right to be mad at me, you know? I couldn't blame her. She told me a hundred times how she thought you were - uh- " Darcy's eyes were burning as she flicked her gaze onto him.

"What did she say about me?"

"Uh, just that - you were pretty, and we live together, and thought it was weird that we hadn't ever - that I -... I never would've let her say anything bad about you, Darcy, my momma raised me better than that."

That seemed to calm her down. She exhaled and leaned forward, putting her elbows on her knees, a strand of hair falling rebelliously into her eyes. She huffed, but it jut flopped sadly back into her view again.

He leaned forward and tucked it back into the clip for her without properly thinking about it.

And the doe-eyes she gave him for it... He was fairly certain they were leaning closer together, for a long, muted second. There had been a moment where his heart had lurched in his chest and he saw her eyes flutter to his mouth. He was so sure there had been micro-fractions of inclining, together.

Then she bolted to her feet, scrambling for the robe she still wore to cover all bits necessary.

"Yup, I'll just go have a shower, now!"

"Isn't Bucky in there?"

"He won't be for long!" she promised a Thor-worthy vengeance, and continued to prattle all the way to the bathroom.

Steve counted the seconds before he heard the telltale: "SSSTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEVVVV VVVVVVEEEEEEEE!" of a damsel in distress.

He only got to forty three.


	5. Chapter 5

Sunday morning, Darcy woke up in Bucky's bed, her head cushioned on his shoulder, fingertips poised on the ridges of his stomach. She blinked for a second - became aware that the only reason she was awake was the sun streaming in, hitting her directly in the iris - and hid her face in the juncture of his neck as a result.

"Mornin', beautiful." he mumbled, rubbing ticklish circles on her arm.

"Mm." she rubbed her nose against his neck. "Time is it?"

He turned his head away to check the time, and she nibbled at his throat, planting sleepy smooches on him until he chuckled, and turned back to her, kissing her brow. She tilted her head and pecked his chin, which was stubbly and itchy on her lips, so she went back to kissing his neck instead.

"Too early. Go back to sleep."

"Don't tell me what to do." she nipped his shoulder a little harder, and he cracked a grin, opening one eye to watch her.

"Do you just do the opposite of everything I say?"

"Maybe." she pushed up on her elbow, dragged wet kisses over his collar bone, paying careful attention to his pec and sternum. She became quite interested in mapping out his six-pack with her tongue, when his hand touched her shoulder, very gently, and she flinched from the pain with a small:

"_Ow_."

"I should be more careful with you." he murmured, and brushed hair out of her face, inspecting her as she continued her valiant attempt at seducing him. "Darce, c'mere a second?"

"Just a minute." she replied, now nose to his navel. "Busy."

"Darcy," he said patiently, sitting up. The action caused her to rise with him onto her knees, grinning impishly as the covers pooled around her hips. He returned the raunchy grin, but his eyes traveled down her body, and the smile faded. He lifted his human arm and very lightly traced a dark bruise marring her thigh, in the shape of his inhuman hand.

"Woah." she lifted her arms and inspected her wrists, which were also mottled with bruises. There were teeth marks dotted around her nipples and collarbone, and hickies all over her chest. Her hips had two distinctive handprints - one significantly darker than the other - and she touched her shoulder to find a sharp pain there, too.

But the look on Bucky's face was more wounded than she felt.

"Hold your horses, solider boy." her hand shot out and landed on his shoulder, physically weighing him to the bed as he made to leave. "I'm fine. I _like_ it rough. I like the way you-"

"I shouldn't handle you like _this_." he was frowning, hand lifted, ghosting over the darkest parts of the biggest bruises. "You're a lady, Darcy, I should treat you more like-"

"Come off it, Barnes!" she shoved his shoulder playfully, but he wasn't in the mood, and sat back in the bed, staring blankly at her face. Feeling that her apparent bruising hurt his feelings, somehow, she sighed shortly and reached behind herself for the covers, pulling them over her shoulders like a white cape. "If you didn't have super powers, I'm pretty sure you'd be all scratched up too, okay? Barnes, look at me."

He did not. He continued to glare at her sheet like he could spontaneously develop x-ray vision if he willed himself to.

"Bucky." she said firmly. "I like it. I _like_ the way you do it."

"I don't." he murmured, and twisted on the bed, his legs hanging over one side. His spine was curved, bowed in shame. He rubbed his head and sighed shortly, leaving his palm over his face. "Steve told me I should treat you like a lady."

"Steve isn't in my bed." she looked around. "Well, he isn't in _your_ bed. He can't exactly have a say, here."

"But he's _right_."

"Leave him out of this, for a second, okay?" she studied his broody face, all damaged, and delicious. There was something about a bad boy having feelings that did something to her heart strings. "You treat me how I_ like _to be treated." she told him, and scooted forward, draping the covers and her arms about his shoulders.

"If I had a problem, you should know by now I'd bring it up. Loudly. And violently."

He just grunted, refusing to turn his head to her gentle coaxing.

"C'mon, lover boy, don't be mopey. You know it makes me want to karate chop you in the throat when you get like this." she bit his ear, dragged it out between her teeth. She may not have been a spy, but she could see the goosebumps explode down the back of his neck, saw the beginnings of them raise on his shoulder blade. "Don't make me get persuasive, now. You won't like me when I'm persuasive."

"I don't like you now." he told her in a coo. She bit his ear again, more sharply, and found herself spinning - bouncing on the bed, before her landed on top of her, one brow arched and his mouth inches away from hers. His legs were either side of hers and the heat of his cock on her belly made her mouth water.

"Now what are you gonna do?" she said in a breathy whisper.

"You're the one that likes giving orders." he mentioned with a devil's grin. He put his face near her ear. "I'm just a sergeant. You tell me."

"I definitely think a round two is appropriate." she told him, stretching out her neck to deliver a kiss on his mouth.

There was a polite knock at the door.

"Uh, Darcy - Jane called my phone. She said you aren't answering yours. Are you okay?"

"Yes!" she pulled the sheet up over Bucky in the event Steve unwittingly opened the door. "Is something wrong?"

"She said there was a-...Uh, _thing_, at the lab."

"Shitballs." Darcy wriggled out from under Bucky (after giving his shoulder and appreciative kiss), and wrapped herself up in her discarded robe. Steve was trying to suss out what Jane was actually saying to translate it across the doorway, when the spritely intern yanked open the door and took the phone.

All she heard was a stream of nervous Jane-blah, which never meant any good. Jane would speak in fully constructed sentences, use all the big words she knew if it was something good, but now she was just prattling, and she actually uttered the noise: 'Uh'.

Not okay.

"Jane, it's me." she struggled to tie the robe closed with one hand. Steve averted his eyes to the roof. "What's wrong?"

What she heard was: "doofguhjukiloiouyagtafeveben." That could only mean: "_I'm having a mental break down and I need help, even though you technically work for Pepper Potts now, I need you because my brain is actually on fire at the moment, and you're the only one who effectively translates me._"

"Right, I'll be there as soon as possible. I'm pulling on pants now. Tell JARVIS to have coffee ready."

"Oh, okay." Jane said, and promptly hung up the phone, because 'goodbye' was for losers with time for salutations.

Darcy very much doubted JARVIS would be told to have her coffee ready.

"Is Jane okay?" Steve ventured, studying the roof.

"No. I don't know what's wrong, but I'm pretty sure I'm gonna find out. Jane only prattles like that when she doesn't know how to fix something, which had only happened twice -" she handed him back his phone and marched around him, heading to her room. "-once, when she got really drunk and couldn't figure out which key went into the door to unlock her trailer - it wasn't her trailer - and twice, when she got_ really _drunk and had a go at her machines for not being able to bring Thor home."

"So, not good." Steve deducted.

"Gold star for Steve." she arrived at her bedroom door and spun, looking up at him, and Bucky over his shoulder, sleepily rubbing his eye with the heel of his hand. "I may need a ride."

"I'll get the spare helmet." Steve said, and gave her a reassuring smile that really didn't do much for the tension in her shoulders. He turned and almost ran into Bucky - who shirtless, with bed hair, cocked a brow and half his mouth in a grin. Flustered, Steve went to step around him as Bucky did the same - they did the awkward two step thing until Steve's hands snapped out, held Bucky by the arms, and spun him.

"Easy on the goods, Captain. I'm fragile."

"Shut up, Bucky." Steve dropped his head and nearly strode away.

Darcy had watched the whole interaction like it was a car accident. Horrifyingly awkward on Steve's behalf, but she couldn't make her eyes drag away. She observed Bucky's gaze drop to the seat of Steve's blue boxer shorts, and decided she had better not comment on that, closing the door between her and the partially mechanic super solider.

She pulled on underwear, jeans, a new bra, and was working on which shirt would she least like to mourn in the event science happened everywhere, when Bucky strolled in.

"It's called knocking, Barnes, I'm pretty sure you would've heard about it back in the day." she tossed a look over her shoulder, saw him grumpily inspecting the length of her back. "What's wrong, King Kong?"

He, at first, didn't answer. He just tapped his thumb against his hip and thoughtfully frowned at her reflection in the mirror, eyebrows down low. He looked like a guilty puppy after having gleefully smashed your favourite vase.

"Bucky?"

"Yeah?" his voice was rough. He took a few steps forward and bent, carefully kissing her temple. His human arm wrapped around her middle and he sighed, setting his scratchy chin on her shoulder. She grabbed his robotic arm and linked their fingers, bringing it up to her stomach.

"You know I like you, Darcy."

"But do you 'like, like' me?"

He made an agreeing noise in his throat, taking one hand away to carefully stroke her spine with his knuckles. She loved it when people rubbed her back - she could feel a sleepiness stirring behind her eyelids, the casual reminder it was an ungodly hour of the morning and she was running on two hours sleep and too many nocturnal activities.

"What are you thinking about, solider?"

"Just you, ma'am."

"As much as I like to hear that..." she caught his eye in the reflection, tipping her head at him. "I don't believe you."

"Believe it." he said, and kissed her cheekbone. "I find myself thinkin' about you more 'n' more everyday."

Warm butterflies filled her chest, and she beamed at his reflection. He just grinned cheekily, making her dig her elbow back into his stomach. He caught her forearm and hugged her lightly.

"Don't distract me with your pretty lies, Bucky Barnes."

"Who says they're lies?"

"Pretty words usually are."

"I have never lied to you, Darce. I'm never gonna lie to you." he turned her in his arms until she faced him. His lips barely brushed hers, only just invading her space. She inhaled through her mouth like she might be able to suck him in closer.

"You say that now." she murmured, and got on tip toe, closing the distance. She would've happily kissed him, until he opened his mouth to insert his foot there.

"Do you want Steve?"

"_What_?" she dropped back on her heels.

"You want Steve to take you?" he repeated. "On the bike?"

"Oh." she knew he could probably tell her heart had momentarily stopped beating. "Yeah, I do. There a problem with that?"

"Well," he cocked a brow. "You're my girl, so I was just wonderin'-"

"Your girl?" she sighed, took a step back. "I thought we were just... benefit friends?"

He licked his upper lip.

"I can drive the bike, if you want."

"But I _don't_ want." she said abruptly. "You drive like a _maniac_. I need to get to Jane in one piece."

"So take a taxi." he tipped his head at her. "Unless you want Steve as a 'benefit friend' as well?"

"Oh, shut the front door." she snapped, and threw her hands up at him. "Steve is a better driver, and the motorbike cuts traffic time in half. I don't have time- "

"Hey, no judgement. I wouldn't mind."

"Wouldn't mind what?" she shoved her head through a shirt. "Sharing? Like I'm some kind of toy?"

"That's not what I said."

"It was _implied_." she dug around in the explosion of trinkets that was her jewelry box until she found a semi-broken hair tie, sliding it over her hand while she gathered up the nest of her hair on her head.

"If you wanted to sleep with Steve-"

"Steve is a virgin. I can't just pick him up and use him."

"Not like you can with me?"

She wanted to punch him in the smirk.

"Leave it, Barnes."

"No, don't think I will." he stepped in her way as she made to walk to the hall. "If you wanted to, I would be okay with that, that's what I'm saying."

"Move, please."

"And you're not saying: 'I don't want to', so I think you want to. Maybe a little."

"Have you seen the pecs on him? I'd motorboat him if I got the chance."

"I don't know what that is." he said airily. "But I'd like to see it happen."

"Ugh, whatever. You have a vivid imagination, go ahead. Move, now."

He snickered slightly, swung aside. Steve was walking towards them with a helmet in each hand when Bucky's arms swung around her middle from behind, and he tipped her head back, planting a kiss on her that made her knees weak. He set her up the right way, kind of guiding her in Steve's direction while she blinked, tried to figure out the look on Steve's face.

He wasn't frowning, but wide eyed, staring at her expression, his mouth popped open. His tongue darted out to wet his lips, and he absently handed her the helmet.

"Take care of my girl, Cap." he said under a yawn.

Steve had nothing to say to that, he just turned away.

* * *

Riding on a motorbike was always titillating. But it was significantly better when Steve Rogers piloted, weaving in and out of traffic like he'd choreographed it before leaving the house. She got to hold onto his stomach, feel the warmth seeping through his shirt - because he'd offered her his jacket before they mounted the huge vehicle.

Darcy had wanted to refuse, badly, but Steve reminded her that wind didn't really phase him; the super solider serum made his metabolism burn up, along with his temperature. He was, scientifically speaking, hotter than an average man.

They parked and Steve took her helmet. Jane had rung twice since they'd left and Darcy blew him a kiss before breaking into a sprint to get there even faster. Her boots squealed on the tiles and she flew through the first security check with no problems - the gaurds there knew her face.

The second one, however, they did not. And her I.D's were all at home.

"Just let me in already! I work here!"

"I'm sorry ma'am -" it made her blood boil that this guy called her by the pet name she liked to hear only from two certain men. "-But without your identification, I'm legally obligated to ask you to leave."

"Look me up on the monitor! I know you can do that! Wanna know how I know that? I HELPED PROGRAM THE SYSTEM." she'd never been shy to throw her voice... Singing lessons at fifteen had done two things - one, shattered her dreams of singing anywhere but the shower, and two, given her the impressive capacity of yelling from her diaphragm.

"Ma'am, lower your voice."

"Call Tony Stark! He knows me!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay, whatever you say." he nodded at his friend, who circled around her like she would forget him if she couldn't see him. "Now, I'm gonna ask you to leave one more time-"

"You put one hand on me - I WILL BRING DOWN THE SEVEN CIRCLES OF HELL UPON YOU."

"Ma'am-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT! Lewis, Darcy Lewis, look it up!"

The security guard grabbed her wrist - it was already bruised and hurting from the night before. He twisted it up between her shoulderblades, making her choke on the scream that fell out of her mouth. There was a moment when she fell to her knees, with the black shiny boots of the guard strolling towards her, then significantly larger boots, and the guy holding her down let go.

"You dare address a lady in such a manner? Do you use such excessive force with all women?" Thor's bellow had never been more welcome. She almost laughed, until the big guy looked up and said: "My friend, I must ask that you refrain from bashing the man's skull in, as he deserves. It would not bode well for publicity."

Darcy twisted to see Steve had the guard up by the front of his jacket, lifted him clean off the floor. His mouth was in an unhappy line, and he wasn't blinking, just glaring while the man struggled in vain. He set him down hard enough to make the man stumble, and turned to Darcy, face softening.

"Are you okay?" he offered her his hand.

Her shoulder hurt, but otherwise, she was totally fine. She took his hand in her less sore one, letting a puff of a groan out the side of her mouth as she was pulled into standing.

"I'm good. Don't hurt them. They're dumb, but they were doing their jobs." she was still holding onto Steve's hand when she turned to Thor, who made a gruff noise at the guard - who flinched back like a mouse before a lion. "What's going on?"

"I don't know." he rumbled, eyes widening. He looked mildly terrified, which is not a good thing for a Nordic thunder god to be. Outside, storm clouds rolled in. "She would not speak to me other than to say many a thing I did not completely understand. She wanted only for you. I was about to come and collect you by my own way of flying."

Darcy thought about that for a long moment.

"Has she been drinking?"

"No." he shook his head, looking troubled. "She has been -... ill, as of late. I could not coerce her into eating, let alone the partaking of beverages. I fear that I have done something I will never be able to understand, to right it. Please. Come." he swung aside, inviting Steve in as much as her. Steve didn't really have a choice, because she dragged him along with her.

Thor had a rapid stride but Darcy was nearly running. The pressure in her chest to see her friend had gained momentum since leaving her apartment. They only lived a five minute drive away, but it had felt like ages, curled into Captain America, as she had been. Steve kept her pace, though, so she barely registered he was even there, squeezing his hand hard as she went along.

Jane would only admit Darcy into the room, after telling both men to remove themselves from the immediate vicinity.

She looked_ horrible._ Grey faced, dark eyed, and gaunt - she had lost weight she couldn't afford to lose.

"What the hell-...?" then she saw the mountain of home pregnancy tests, Pepper Potts perched on the edge of a chair, done up beautifully in a pastel blue power suit. The red head offered what appeared to be a smile and a nod. "Hey, bosslady."

"Hello, Darcy. You didn't pick up your phone earlier?"

"It died." she watched Jane drink a quarter of orange juice straight out of the bottle. There were two new pregnancy tests unopened on the bench beside the drink. "Jane... what's going on?"

"I can't be sure. There's a statistic of these things being incorrect, and I need it to be one hundred percent sure. I don't know what is happening. I am going to finish these two and then I will have ten sets of two tests done. That should be enough to secure a medium I can be confident isn't a false positive."

"What have the others said so far?" Darcy ventured kindly.

Pepper shook her head.

"We haven't looked yet." she said quietly.

Jane guzzled some more orange juice, set the bottle down hard. The drink sloshed in the container, trying to escape its plastic confines.

"Thor said you'd been sick." Darcy told her. "In the morning?"

"All day." Pepper offered. "At first, we thought that extensive collaboration with Bruce was leading to an exposure of sub-gamma radiation, but Bruce and Tony both checked her for it and found nothing. Tony handled the blood taking, and he suggested that her hormones were... different."

"He made a joke about Thor-mones." Jane ventured, miserably.

"And that's when it clicked." Pepper nodded to the tests. "We had to sit with these in boxes for weeks before the optimal date for testing was achieved."

"And... no monthly visits from the Red Sea?" Darcy asked.

Jane shook her head, tearing open the two packets with her teeth, leaving the boxes where they landed. With four tests in hand, she shut the bathroom door behind her. Darcy rubbed her shoulder, where the guard had nearly yanked it out of her socket.

Darcy looked around at the lab - there was no sign of space-science anywhere, only what looked like the inside of a chemistry/biology classroom. There were posters of the uterus and DNA strings and papers with unfamiliar names on every desk.

"How long has she been stewing on this...?"

"Too long."

"And no one else has put it together?"

"Tony has his suspicions. But he would never tell Thor that."

"I see." she fretted for a moment, and for peace of mind, continued: "He'd make a great dad, Thor. Maybe even Tony."

"Thor would. Tony..." she let the name drag in her mouth, lips pinched in a painful smile. "I think that raising a child is an intuitive learning process. Tony is a facts and figures man. It'd take him a while to catch the gist of it."

"Thor's all about family." Darcy mentioned, and took a seat. They sat in awkward silence for a long moment. "Would you have kids with Tony?"

"It's not something we talk about." was her even reply. "What about Jane? Has she ever said anything about children?"

"Here's the thing about Jane." Darcy shook her head. "She had that bar in her arm specifically so she can't get pregnant. She didn't want kids until later in life, when she planned for them. That thing she has, it's supposed to be like, ninety nine percent sure. And I know she used to make her ex-doctor guy friend wear protection, so..."

The door swung open. Jane calmly strolled out and lay down the four extra tests down in a neat row with the other sixteen tests, then sat between Pepper and Darcy. She instantly put a hand on her shoulder.

They sat in silence, watching the clock. At nearly five minutes, Jane got to her feet with a deep breath in, took a clipboard, and started marking down the results of the tests. She looked at the last two with no emotion on her face, she just ticket a column.

Then she handed the clipboard to Darcy to read, and threw up in the bathroom.

"Prognosis...Pregnant." she looked up at Pepper, whose mouth had popped open. "Every test came back positive. My best friend is... with child. A Nordic myth is the baby daddy. I'm pretty sure Jerry Springer would have a field day with this."

Pepper sat back in her seat.

"What do we do now?"

"I have no idea." Darcy looked at all twenty tests on the table. The sheer excessive idea to do twenty tests without looking to assume the results was something only Jane would do - the scientist in her wanted to make absolutely sure, first. Darcy would've had a hard enough time waiting for the results of one test, let alone twenty.

Jane opened the door again and sagged against the door frame.

"Okay." she said heavily. "You can send Thor in."

"Do you want me to stay?" Darcy offered.

"No." she closed her eyes. "I-... There must be something in his sperm. Because he's a god. Biologically, his genetic material is different to mine, and probably why the protection all failed." The implication that there was more than one set made something in Darcy want to laugh.

But also want to cry. Jane had always been so careful.

"I'll charge my phone." she promised, standing with a wince. Her shoulder was really,_ really_ fucking sore. "I love you, Jane."

"I love you too." her bottom lip wobbled. "Send him in, please? Before I-..."

"Sure, honey." Darcy knew that hugging would make her worse. They had shared the Notebook experience together, so she knew that hugging Jane when she was only quietly crying was equal to inviting the tidal waves of emotion to cascade from her tiny being. "Call me later, okay?"

"Okay."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Pepper gave her a quiet goodbye and exited. The boys were holed up one of the many lounge areas, talking quietly. Thor popped to his feet as soon as Darcy rounded the corner, so she gave him a small smile.

"She wants to speak with you." she said, but he had already jumped over the couch and marched himself down there.

"Hello, Mr. Rogers."

"Miss Potts." Steve stuck out his hand automatically, and Pepper reciprocated. He glanced at Darcy, who was rubbing her arm. "How does it feel?"

"Hm? Oh, uh, like crap. It's fine." she wondered if Thor would be happy. She wondered if Jane would keep it. It hurt Darcy's heart to think she might not. "I just - wanna go... I need to charge my phone."

"Sure." he looked at Pepper's carefully maintained expression. "You've got a guard on Level two that needs a talking to about how he handles suspicious persons."

"Steve, leave it."

"What did he do?" Pepper asked.

"Had Darcy in an arm lock. Wouldn't check her online identification. He's lucky Thor got there before that other one put hands on my girl, otherwise the situation might've escalated."

Darcy's mouth had dropped open at 'my girl', but he didn't seem to notice that he'd said it. It was how they said 'Girlfriend' in old timey speak, so she was pretty sure Steve had just called her his.

"I'll review the footage." Pepper said promptly. "Do you want to go to the infirmary?"

"I want to go home." she looked over her shoulder, where the thunder god's rumbly voice was rolling under the door. His words were just noise, but it didn't seem a happy noise. The clouds outside grew darker.

"Then let's go home." he said. They said goodbye to Pepper, who apologised officially for the guards' behaviour (citing Happy's paranoia as an excuse for the intensity of their actions), and while they were in the elevator, Steve got a text message and flipped open his phone - because while touch screens were very exciting, he couldn't quite figure out how to use them. He pressed a button and scrolled down a few times, his mouth turning further and further into an unhappy line.

They marched past the violent guard - Steve looked up from his phone to give him the supremely intimidating Captain America face - then returned to reading the text, scrolling up to read it again as they got to the bike.

"Looks like rain." Darcy commented.

Only it didn't just rain.

It poured.

* * *

**Aggiebell** is possibly my favourite person. Thank you so much for everything, you beautiful person!

Aude

xx


	6. Chapter 6

DOUBLE POST FOR **AGGIEBELL**!

(And all my love!)

* * *

Darcy tossed her leg off the back of the bike and sprinted under the cover of the building. The rain pelted down, stinging as it hit. It wasn't just rain, but small bits of ice - her anxiety over Jane and Thor was only trumped by the realization she was alone in the door way.

"Steve!" she called above the blare of white noise that was the storm around them. "_Dude!_ Are you coming?!"

Steve did not answer. The motorbike was still purring between his legs, and he was staring over the handlebars. She couldn't see his face, but the way his body was so rigid denoted something negative.

"Motherf-" she pulled her helmet off, his jacket over her head, and ran out to him, bending over to see through the visor. "Steve, I am freezing my tits off here!"

The helmet turned toward her. She smacked the reflective bit of plastic away from his eyes, squinting to see his expression. He unclicked and pulled off the helmet to show her a very small smile.

"Steve?" she stopped being so concerned about the rain attacking the back of her neck when he still didn't speak.

She'd noted that when Steve was sad, he got quiet, but with huge amounts of boundless energy, like he compressed all his sad and turned it into fuel. She'd seen it first when Loki attacked, in the aftermath of which was when they met.

* * *

_Six Months Ago_

* * *

Jane was a passionate creature, and Darcy knew her way around words. That being, when they saw all the Manhattan drama unfolding on the T.V, Jane's first reaction was to calmly demand to be taken there.

The baby-sitters did not agree with her reasoning of why - being in love with the thunder god vehemently defending their world from aliens wasn't in their list of acceptable reasons to cart a scientist to a inter-galactic war zone.

Darcy had to steer Jane to a little dark corner, and proceed to plan their attack.

"Hi guys." Darcy said, putting a hand on her hip. "So, this is my best friend Jane. Jane is madly in love."

"We've heard it."

"Yeah, but did you hear the part where she just went ahead and built an anti-matter projector? Know what anti-matter is?" she tipped her head at them, smiling sweetly. The tiny scientist behind her loaded the huge barrel up on her shoulder. "Let me explain in people, because Jane'll just- do it no _justice_. Basically, anti-matter will_ unmake _you. It'll unmake anything it touches. I say unmake, what I mean is, it'll create a warp between time and space and_ consume _you, spit you out into another galaxy far, _far _away."

Jane's weapon hummed. A light started to glowed on the inside, the hum escalated into a high pitched whirring. Jane's biceps started to tremble under the weight - a glean of sweat beaded on her brow.

"Now. Jane's not exactly trigger happy - and I might be a tad too trigger happy - so the trigger is pressurized. Means that if she takes her finger off, it's gonna go ahead and make like anti-matter dematerializing your bodies and vomiting them back into space." she took a pause, batted her lashes. "We want to go to Manhattan, please, so Tony Stark can fix it."

* * *

Things got done, when Darcy got persuasive. The entire time they were in flight, Jane had this huge metal cylinder on her shoulder, aimed at the engine of the plane. Which made the pilot sweat bullets, mumbling about how he didn't sign up for that part of his job.

By the time they landed, the battle was done, and the superheros had retreated to some little meat eatery that had managed to survive. Jane was marched there by four agents; she saw her man, tossed the ray down, and bolted at him.

"Jane!" Thor stood up so fast and hard his chair snapped upon hitting the ground. Jane jumped and he caught her, wrapping his arms nearly twice around her tiny body.

"Hi." she said, all breathless. She'd been awake nearly two days straight, but she looked like a windswept goddess. Darcy snickered at agents that had ducked for cover, casually unloaded the potentially deadly flashlight that she made the light in the weapon.

"Oh, did I say this was a _replica_ of the real thing? Did I mention that? So sorry. Got nervous. Forgot my script. Good job breaking the sound barrier to get us here, though, guys. Kudos to teamwork." she let the metal tube fall out of her hand and waved. "Yeah, hi Thor, good to see you too."

"Darcy!" he didn't let go of Jane, he just carried her over there in one arm and stuck the other hand out to collect her in a brief hug. Jane was shaking, hiding her face in his lengthy hair. He stroked the back of her head, but grinned even more widely still on Darcy. "How do you fare?"

"I fare pretty good, considering I just talked my way into a jet with threats of de-making people."

Thor's growl cut the agents off from advancing. Clint gave them a complicated hand gesture, and they saluted him. Captain America had long since popped to his feet, wiping his hands on his thighs.

"That's a pretty good replica," Tony had his neck arched on an uncomfortable level to see it. "I'd say if you loaded it with the right cartridge, it'd vaporize someone."

"You could." Jane offered, mumbled. "I know. I've tried it before."

"On cardboard boxes, and a pot plant." Darcy said quickly. "Not people."

"_Reeeeeeallly_?" Tony took his shwarma and got up. "Hey, Brucie, say we loaded it with gamma-"

"No." Dr. Banner sighed, and swallowed his mouthful.

"You ruin all my fun. Can I have it?"

"Sure." Jane said. "I have two more at the lab."

"I like you." Tony inspected what he could see of her face. "You can stay. We could be science-soulmates. You study what, exactly?"

"Space." Thor rumbled, and turned to cock a brow down at him. "And she is _my _soulmate. Get your own or face my wrath."

Darcy rose her hand slowly.

"I volunteer as tribute."

"Not you," Jane mumbled. "I need you."

Tony winked at the intern who beamed, bent and offered him the anti-matter projector that he took and started to dismantle with strategic twists of his hands. Steve cleared his throat, which garnered Darcy's attention. She grinned at him, pushed her glasses up her nose, and strode toward him with her hand stuck out.

"I'm Darcy."

"Hello." he took her hand, smiling slightly. "Steve Rogers."

"Also Captain America." she nodded to his suit. "That's...Cool."

"You could say, _'ice cold'." _Tony threw over his shoulder. Steve sent a glare at him over Darcy's head. She didn't get the pun, but Clint barked a laugh and rubbed his head with a heavy sigh.

"S'gonna be a long day." he mumbled. "Those agents are gonna want a write up of what happened, you know. You probably broke like, ten laws doing that stunt."

"Yeah, well. Jane had to see her man. She would've just stuck the gigamawhatsit into the death-ray over there and shot people, had I not been involved. You're welcome."

Clint shrugged one shoulder, which hurt something in his ribcage. Natasha murmured to him in low Russian, of which his reply was: "Meh. Do it later."

"So, uh, Steve." Darcy had to actively look up at him. "How goes your military write up skills?"

"Like Captain Apple pie ever had to write up anything in his whole life." Tony mentioned, still mostly absorbed into the death ray he dumped on the table. Bruce peered into it from behind a pair of spare glasses he'd found on the walk over, and made an interested noise, picking up a pen to prod it. "You'd have a better chance asking me."

"Well you aren't as pretty as he is."

"With age comes experience."

"I'm over seventy years old." Steve offered, then blushed, and ducked his head. "Ma'am."

* * *

Darcy owned two items of Captain America merch. One was an old boyfriend's who had made the mistake of leaving it at her place, comfy and well-worn in as it was. It was her favourite t-shirt to sleep in, even if the shield insignia was fading and cracked and there was a hole in the seam on one armpit.

The other piece of Captain America paraphernalia was a pair of underwear that had the star from his suit right on the crotch. She had thought they were really cute, with the red-lace trim and bright blue material, and they sat across her heiney in a particular way that made her feel patriotic_ and _sexy.

These were the things she thought about while Captain America sat across from her, 'helping her fill in the incident report'. Thor had whisked Jane away in a flurry of cape and a delighted squeal from her - so Darcy was left with Tony and Bruce talking shop, Natasha and Clint hobbling together, and Captain America, who sort of stuck to her like a bur.

Now in some kind of flying super air craft, she couldn't help but be distracted by all the cool beeping things surrounding her. She had been ever since she was sat down and told to not touch anything. Steve had gone for a medical check up and a shower, and when he passed the room she was in, he stuck his nose around the corner to scent the coffee she had in her hands.

"Want some?" she lifted the cup.

"Please." he'd replied, and gave her this devastating-my-ovaries smile.

She'd prodded and asked questions and he'd answer in his nice boy, indoor voice. After a while she thought he might be sick of talking, might be exhausted. He'd helped her all she could; literally all that was left of her paper work was to explain (in your own words) what had happened, and to sign the dotted line.

"You must be pretty beat." she said with a nod at his shoulders. "Shouldn't you go home?"

"I-...Don't have one." he murmured. "The agency has me put up in an apartment, but it's not home."

"Oh,_ honey_." the look on his face. She couldn't stand it. "There's got to be somewhere you could go that's somehow home?"

"It's... Not really the same." he looked at her from under his eyelashes. "A lot has changed."

But Darcy's mind was ticking. She'd never been in Manhattan but she knew her way around the internet. She excused herself - forgetting the paperwork, and promptly flipped out her phone, really glad there was nothing condemning on the screen when he blinked at it for a while.

She simply Google'd and then gave him an address. When he was reluctant she showed him the themed hotel, with rooms done up from the roaring twenties straight through to the crazy eighties. He blinked at the photos on the screen, smiled softly, and thanked her quietly.

"What? What's wrong?" he was quiet. Too quiet. Lost in thinking was never a good thing when predisposed to self-depreciation, and he was depreciating the hardest she'd ever seen. "Steve?"

"I just... It's nice, really. But it's still not homey, ma'am."

"Please, it's Darcy." and before she could stop the words falling out of her mouth: "If I could offer you my place I would - it's lived in so much - I got bad art everywhere and books all over the coffee table, everything smells like smoke because I thrifted most of the furniture and one of my room mates used to smoke on the couches - the curtains don't match in length and one of the windows sticks and - if you want to close the shower door, you have to wedge it shut with a door stop because if it closes it won't open again -"

She took a breath.

His smile was more honest now, broader on his face.

"It sounds like it has... personality."

"It does." she grinned, couldn't stop herself. "Don't even get me started on the space heater. I think it's possessed."

"Tell me about it?"

But she didn't figure out that her talking of such a familiar place made him feel like he knew it too. She lost him at the dodgy wi-fi but he was right back on board when she mentioned how crappy the stove was, the temperamental way in which it sometimes just couldn't light a flame. He laughed along when she mentioned the mouse she had adopted, who she didn't want to kill with a mousetrap - and when she told him about having to use a certain stack of magazines to even out the kitchen table, he couldn't stop smiling.

"So, what, your ah... Boyfriend, doesn't he help out with that?"

"What boyfriend?" she quirked a brow. "I live with Jane. You saw her earlier, right? That one track mind thing?"

"She's devoted to her work?"

"It's her theoretical baby. She's been working in space so long her head is kind of stuck in the clouds. Which is good, because Thor can fly."

"Yeah, I guess they're a pretty perfect pair." he looked at his hands on the table. "Have they known each other very long?"

"Three days, they spent together. She hit him with her car twice. I tazed him. But they just..." she snapped her fingers. "And then he left for his world and she was so crazy about getting him back. She did everything she could to find him, went on these insane benders without sleeping or eating... But he was gone."

There was a heaviness weighing on her, all because of Steve's expressive blue eyes. She'd made a connection to him but she didn't know what she'd said that had done it.

"But then she saw him, and her face - she was so betrayed. By SHIELD, I think, more than any body, because they were the ones that carted her away. I tried to tell her he was coming to her next but-... Yeah. So... You look wrecked, Steve. You should go catch a few z's."

"A few what?"

"Sleep. You should go to sleep."

"Oh. I should be fine." he studied the paperwork, flicked through it aimlessly, briefly browsing the words she'd written. "I'd prefer not to sleep right now. I feel like there's so much to do."

He was so sad. So alone. And although he looked tired, he looked jittery, fidgety, like a hunky junkie.

And Darcy was all about helping people, especially when they were so pretty.

She signed her name on the dotted line, and invited him out into helping with digging people out of collapsed buildings. He was the only one brave enough to venture into the rubble and go after a screaming damsel in distress. When he emerged, Jessica was still conscious and dusty but otherwise totally fine, and they'd been together ever since.

* * *

_Presently_

* * *

"Steve?" she put her head closer to his. "Are you okay?"

"I've gotta go." he glanced at the building behind her. "Go inside, you'll catch a cold."

"Speaking of-" her numb fingers fiddled with his jacket, aiming to hand it over. His hand closed over hers, halting her from unzipping it. "-You're gonna -" she had meant to say _'freeze to death'_, but shut her mouth at the last second.

"I'm okay. I'll be back later."

"Want me to come?" she blinked owlishly at him. "Come with you- like on the bike?"

"I'll be okay." he put his helmet back on. She had the deepest urge to do up the clip for him, but he did it himself, one handed, like a pro. He lifted his hand in a wave and gunned the engine, long gone by the time she'd reached the door to her building.

With a heavy sigh she jogged up the stairs, elegantly crashed through the door, dumped the helmet by the collection of neat shoes under the table that held the key-jar. Bucky strolled over to her, cocking a brow at the leather jacket that hung loose on her shoulders.

"You look like a drowned rat." he drawled. "Bad day to choose a bike, huh?"

She didn't bother replying, she just shrugged out of the jacket and hung it up on one of the pegs in the entry. She kicked off her boots and toed them into line, knowing that if she didn't, Bucky would do it for her. The thing about living with men from the military was: neatness was key.

"So, what's for dinner?" he prodded.

She shrugged, mumbled her 'I dunno', and made her way to her room. She had shut the door for a reason behind her, but he apparently didn't get the memo, opening it and sitting on her unmade bed.

"I think pizza."

"We had pizza last night."

"I want it again."

"Well, you have it. I want noodles. Can you get out of my room?"

"I can, but won't. Just get changed, it's nothing I haven't seen before." he laid back on her bed, propped up by cushions, arms folded. "What did Jane want?"

"That's private." she dug around in her drawers, found some underwear and warm, fleece lined track pants she'd never wear in public but secretly loved.

"Has it got to do with lady parts?"

"Yes."

"She's pregnant, right?"

Darcy huffed, turned on him.

"Get out of my room?"

"No. She's pregnant. You woulda said no if she wasn't."

"She's_ not_. Happy now?"

"You're a bad liar, Lewis."

"And you're a pain in my ass."

"Not that we have, but I wouldn't be if I tried."

She thumped the draw shut with her fist, which made her sore shoulder twinge painfully.

"Ow! Mothertrucking-!"

"What? What's wrong?" he had his hands on her before she'd seen him move off the bed. "Is it from last night?"

"No!" she tore herself away from him. "Can you just- get out? Jesus!"

"What the hell's crawled up your ass?" his gaze flicked to her arm. His hand snatched the pair of panties from her and held them aloft. The Captain America blue was still very blue, the red still very red, and the star still silver-y white. She'd worn them about twice since purchasing them, never since knowing Steve. They were the undies that lay at the back of the draw, the ones in case of emergency.

"Oh come on!" she tried to snatch them back, but he just moved out of her way. "I need to do my laundry, clearly, I didn't even know those were still floating around."

He just cocked a brow at her, lifted the other side of the underwear with his other hand.

"I see." he said mildly, and wetted his lips. "You should definitely wear these more often."

She blinked at him stupidly.

"I don't understand you." she told him bluntly, and tried to snatch them away, only to have him put out of her reach again. "Ugh. Fine! Whatever, keep them if you want!"

"I do. And will. Didn't need your permission." he promptly tucked them into his jacket pocket. "Now, puddin', what's happened to your arm? You can't extend it properly. What the hell'd Steve do to you-?"

"Steve didn't touch me!" she very narrowly stomped her foot.

"Well I ask him to take care o' my girl and you come back like a cripple!"

"What is wrong with you? Steve would _never_ hurt me! Why would Steve even touch me to begin with?"

"I thought you'd taken up my idea of giving him a go." he shrugged.

She turned on her heel, throwing her clothes down - then promptly spun back around and pointed her non-injured arm at her door.

"Out! Get _out_!"

"Lewis, look me in the eye and tell me you ain't never once fantasized about my boy Steve-" a glitter lit up his eyes at the words _'my boy', _and Darcy noticed. "-and try'n remember I'm a spy, okay? Tell me, honest to god, if Jessica hadn't crashed your party you wouldn't have jumped his ship-"

"I don't have to tell you anything!" she pointed again. "Get out of my room!"

"You know it's true!" he was grinning at her. "You wanted him. Still do, a lil' bit, don't you?"

"Christ, Bucky, the way you talk about him, I'm starting to think _you _want Steve!" she didn't think he'd take it badly, but he did. The grin fell off his face. The twinkle turned into a glare. "That's it, right, spy-master? You totally wanna bone your bestie! And you deflect all this shit on me so what? So I can report back? What makes you think I'd even tell you any of that?"

"It's funny how you just wrote your own story." he told her, mouth in a tight line. "Maybe it's best you just stay the hell away."

"_What?" _she was too sore, too tired, too over-the-world, too wet and cold to deal effectively with him. "Are you on drugs, Barnes? What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm a spy." he said coldly. "I know how people work."

"Yuh huh. And?"

"And, I'm telling you. It's a technique you learn when interrogating people. You let them tell you what they think, and it's essentially how they operate. You make no suggestions, so they write their own."

She gritted her teeth.

"Get _out _of my room."

"So you would. You would tell me what it was like? Or would you just tell the world?" he frowned. "Would you mention that to Steve before you ruined his rapport as a solider, or would you just do it as a tramp who don't know any better?"

She could swear the breaking noise she heard in the back of her mind was actually her self control snapping. She knew for a fact her eye had started twitching, and that her arm fell from pointing to seize into a furious fist by her side.

Bucky realized he'd done damage, but he didn't care. He folded tight arms across his chest and frowned at her.

"And not answering," he said tightly. "That's as good as a 'yes', to me."

"How about," she retorted through her teeth. "You take your spy-speak, and shove it up your ass. I am not a criminal. This is not an interrogation. You are wrong."

"No," his tone could be perceived as even, were you not on the receiving end of it. "I'm not."

She was so _angry._

Angry Darcy was fist-swinging Darcy, warrior goddess, able to taze Nordic gods and aim a loaded shot gun at the guy who'd come to take a swing at her room mate one last time. She stood tall and strong and was fierce as shit. Gladly, she would've returned the stinging verbal barb and hurt his feelings, but at the time, she was almost a hundred percent sure he didn't have any. So she stormed back into her own room, snatched her phone and charger from the wall, and stormed out again.

"Where are you going?"

She didn't speak to him.

"Fine. Go. Go find Steve. I'm sure you'll just make me the bad guy,_ again_." he followed her out to the front door, watched her pull on her still-wet boots. "He's only on your side because you're smaller than I am, anyway."

"He's on my side because I'm right." she spun on her heel, which squeaked quite comically in view of the dark mood. "You, Bucky Barnes, nothing more than a two-bit-metal-Soviet _bully_."

He rolled his eyes, swearing in what she thought might have been German. All the noises he was making were hard and ugly, so she knew they were swears, or curses, at least.

She collected her house keys, and Steve's jacket, then slammed the door shut behind her, pretending for a moment that the grove of Steve's hand on the handle was not his display of shock, but her show of strength.


	7. Chapter 7

**To: Stevie**

_Need you._

* * *

Three long minutes for him to reply.

* * *

**From: Stevie**

_What's happened?_

* * *

**To: Stevie**

_Your idiot friend the cyborg, happened. I'm walking the rain, no money for a taxi._

* * *

And just because she didn't think he got the severity of her situation, she sent:

* * *

_I need a hero._

* * *

**From: Stevie**

_You don't need a hero, you're your own hero.  
I'll be with you shortly.  
Where are you?_

* * *

She knew crying because she was tired was a lousy excuse, but the rain soaking her hair was making her screen blur even more than tears were. She took a photo of the name of the cafe she'd holed up in, and he sent:

* * *

_I know it. Ten minutes._

* * *

She proceeded to sniff up her remaining misery and sink into a warm lounge chair. If Steve said he was coming, she would wait. The only problem was, she was left waiting an hour, so her decision to order a slice of cake and hot chocolate with no money in her pockets was making her sweat paying the bill.

He did arrive, finally, though he wasn't alone.

"The actual _fuck?_" she got to her feet.

Jessica flinched behind his arm.

"Hang on, hear me out."

"Uh-" she wanted to deny him the chance. But he was so earnest, puppy eyed and waiting so patiently for her reply. She made a strangled: "_Yeah, whatever_." noise, and Steve took a seat, after pulling one out for Jessica, who promptly took hold of his arm in both her ugly hands.

"We've talked." Steve said placidly. "We're okay. We've both apologised."

"I'm _not_ okay with this." Darcy tossed out there.

"You're not in this relationship." Jessica offered, somewhat timidly.

"Bitch-" Darcy leveled her with a dark look. "-do not _presume_ to speak to me because I haven't clawed your stupid face off."

"Darcy." Steve said gently. "Show a little maturity."

"Like maybe I should smash a photo over_ her _head?" Jessica flushed with colour, but Darcy was steaming mad, still boiling over from the fight she'd had with Bucky. "Tell me, did you say 'sorry' to the frame? Did it go back to the way it was? Hm? No? So why is this any different?"

"Because I am a person, with my own opinions and feelings," Steve said. "And I heal."

"I didn't throw it at _him_," Jessica told her. "I threw it at the _wall_. It sort of... sailed on the wrong angle. You've got to believe me."

"_Why_? Why do I 'got' to?"

Usually, the New York drawl she found her housemates encompassed in was endearing. But when the blonde woman offered it, her inner grammar Nazi just about shot her for treason.

"Well..." she swallowed, glanced at Steve before looking back at Darcy. "I don't so much as like hurting plants. Why would I hurt Steve on purpose?"

It made sense. But still.

"Because you're a psycho bitch."

"Darcy." Steve said, but Darcy was not looking to be lectured, or to make peace. She was angry, and she wanted Steve to be angry too. She wanted him to not be with the rail thin, blonde woman with too many morals, she wanted Steve to be with -

"I have to go. Pay for my cake." she stepped around them, leaving his jacket on the chair.

"Darce-" he only tried to grab her hand. He nearly got her, too, and she hated to think what might've happened had he managed that. She was pretty sure she would've just fallen apart.

"_Please don't touch me_." she jerked her arm, which hurt her shoulder. Clinging to it with her free hand, she looked up at him, now standing, looking lost, soft. "I-...Steve, just don't, right now."

"Darcy, stay. You said you needed me. I'm here."

"She's here too." she shot back, with malice only inclined at her, not him. "The last thing I want to do is leave you alone with her-... But you're in public, so you _should_ be okay."

"You said you needed me." he reminded her.

"Turns out I'm my own hero after all."

And she left in a rush, nearly crashing into a waitress as she went.

* * *

Steve and Jessica spent maybe another hour together at the cafe, talking quietly, holding hands. Then he hailed a cab and sent her home, citing that Darcy was a priority in his life, and part of the proviso of their second try was that he be allowed to treat Darcy as he would treat any male friend.

He had the idea in his head that Bucky had wounded her - but then he checked home first to see if she was there. She wasn't, though Bucky jogged around the corner to see who was home. His expression soured - he took note of the leather jacket and frowned.

Steve turned his back, hanging it up on a peg.

"So you've seen Darcy then?"

"Yeah. What happened this time?"

"I, uh... It was my fault. I think I read too much into something. It's in my nature, not a lot I can do about it." he shrugged.

"Huh." was Steve's reply. "She isn't here?"

"No. She hasn't been answering my texts."

"Mine either." Steve rubbed his hand over his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose, and decided to use that as an excuse not to look directly at Bucky, who was scrutinizing him from afar. "I-... I'm gonna have a shower, wait five minutes, then go look for her."

"Library?"

"Yeah. Maybe Stark Tower."

"So Jane's pregnant?"

Steve turned, eyebrows hiked.

"She is?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure. Figured it out. It's good to see your face again." Bucky's arms folded, he cocked a brow. "You even looked me in the eye for a second there. I'm impressed."

Steve tried to make eye contact, but he couldn't. He just sighed, turned to the front door, and went to pick up his coat. The only reason he knew Bucky was coming up behind him like a bull at a gate was because of the reflection in the key-jar, not because he expected it or that he heard him.

He turned in the very nick of time, caught his mechanical wrist and twisted, but Bucky swung.

He raised his forearm and blocked the attack, turned and grabbed that wrist too. Bucky's mechanical arm was stronger than his grip and he ripped it away, gripping Steve's jaw in his hand. He slammed him up against the wall, making the hooks rattle and the front door shake loose.

Steve grunted, pushed up, but Bucky leaned heavily down on his arm, pinning him. His elbow caught Steve's bicep and dug in, effectively immobilizing it, leaving him free to hold Steve's face up to his. He managed to wedge his leg to the side and had every intention of kneeing Bucky in the ribcage in a roundhouse maneuver - but the second he lifted his leg, Bucky darted forward, matching him hip to hip.

Steve exhaled like he'd been punched in the gut. They were both breathing hard, both inches away. Bucky shook his head, eyes flicking to his mouth, his throat, heaving chest.

"Think we need to talk, Captain." he said, very lowly.

Steve, on the other hand, prefered they didn't. He kissed Bucky on the mouth, lingering a moment with his eyes closed, panting through his nose. He didn't move, just felt, and tried hard to achieve enough air through only his nostrils.

He wrenched his head away and turned his face down, eyes still shut tight. Bucky's hand flexed on his jaw.

"No, no, no, you don't get to do that. Look at me."

Steve just kissed him again - missing his mouth but catching the corner.

"Steve," Bucky was saying, trying to steer his face. "Open your eyes. Look at me. Look at me."

"I'm sorry." he was saying, murmured against his chin, and jaw. "I can't. Don't make me. I'm sorry."

Bucky let go of his arm but kept his proximity, the hold on his face. He wrapped his free arm around the back of Steve's shoulders to keep him there with a clawed hand. Steve's hands shot to his back, digging in hard nails there, his hips jutting forward in the most purposeful invitation Bucky had ever known.

Bucky licked his mouth and Steve opened up; but their kiss was like a battle, trying to win the upper hand. There were hard clashes of teeth and tongue, and the longer they fought, the harder Steve pulled at his shirt, until the seams ripped and he shoved Bucky back in the gut.

He stumbled, not expecting it. Steve followed, wrapping tight arms around his waist, slamming him back into the counter. He was bent almost double over it, and now Steve was between his legs, mouth hot and wet on his jaw, throat, at the collar of his shirt.

"Steve." Bucky grunted, grabbed his face, tipped it up.

Steve looked at him, chin planted on his chest. His eyes were bright blue, dazed, his mouth panted in and out from a red, but healing mouth. Bucky ran his fingertip over his brow, down the side of his face, and tried very hard to think of words. Instead, he rolled to the side and took Steve out at the knees, landing on him, mouth sucking on his lower lip before he'd hit the floor.

Steve's hands pulled Bucky's shirt into pieces. Buttons flew off and bounced around the walls, echoing only dimly to each man. Bucky growled, pulled the front f Steve's t-shirt clear off, latching his mouth on the skin the was revealed there, while Steve dug his fingertips into Bucky and shoved him up and off, rolling to top him.

Bucky didn't mind, he just settled his hands on Steve's waistband, yanking the button off his jeans. Steve was holding his face, kissing him with tongue, but stopped, caught Bucky's fingers as he tried to pull the zipper open.

They took a moment, breathing hard, hands both at his jeans. Bucky had his eyes open, didn't want to miss a single second, but Steve's were firmly closed. He sat back - which leveled him on Bucky's groin, making him moan and Steve promptly scoot forward - and sighed, rubbing a hand over his face.

"I-..._Can't_ -...Do this."

"You were doin' a pretty damn good job a second ago." Bucky unwound his hands from the denim at his hips to put them on Steve's rapidly expanding ribcage, feeling his heart thrash around like it was a bird trying to break out.

Steve repositioned his hands onto both of Bucky's, and finally managed to crack open his eyes.

"I-...Am cheating... On Jessica..." he swallowed a hard mouthful, thumb rubbing rhythmically over Bucky's fingers. "I can't."

"Wait. Jessica?" Bucky's head hit the floor.

Steve nodded, and tried to rise, but Bucky held him firm.

"When in the hell'd you get back with her?"

"Sent me a text this morning." Steve murmured. "She was-...In a real bad way. Needed to talk."

"And you ended up with her again?"

"We have rules, this time." was Steve's defence. "We-... Have an understanding, about Darcy."

"And what about me?" both dark brows shot upward. "You gonna explain how you've wanted to stick your tongue in me since all the time you've known me?"

Steve grunted, rose, regardless of how tightly Bucky hung on. He stepped over him but Bucky grabbed his ankle and yanked it, making him crash to the floor again. He turned with fists up but Bucky had just sat, leaning against the wall.

Steve watched the long red stripes down Bucky's side vanish into his skin, and found that he was much the same. A touch to his mouth confirm that at some stage, his lip had been bitten to bleeding, but was now healed, only the taste of blood remaining.

"_We_ can't do this." Steve said flatly, getting to his feet. He marched to his jacket and pulled it on, zipping it all the way to his chin. "You've got Darcy. I've got Jessica."

"I don't think I've got Darcy at all." Bucky told him. "And I think Jessica's got _you,_ hook, line and sinker."

Steve shrugged, refused, once again, to look at him.

"I'm going to look for Darcy now. When I come back with her, I don't want to think about this. You two are gonna sit down and hash out whatever nonsense you've been fighting over, and I'm gonna referee, and everything's just gonna go back to how it was. Do I make myself clear?"

"I ain't doin' it." was Bucky's initial reaction. "You can't _make_ me play nice, _Steve_."

"You want to keep livin' with us, _James_?" Steve didn't have to look at him to make the point, he just picked up his keys and flattened his hair down. "Fix it. I won't live in a house where my two best friends won't get along 'cuz they're too damn stubborn."

"And what, you're gonna chose between your 'two best friends'?"

"She was with me first, and she needs help with the rent. You don't. I don't gotta make a decision." he fixed a look over his shoulder, one that rested on the panes of Bucky's chest, the dip of his hips, the trail of dark hair disappearing into his jeans. "I don't wanna lose you."

"You're goin' the right way about it." Bucky seethed, and picked up what remained of his shirt. "Bring her back, then. See what happens."

"That better not be a threat."

"Or you'll _what_?"

Steve didn't answer, he just walked through the door, closing it firmly behind him.


	8. Chapter 8

Darcy had retreated to her favourite library, first. Then, after about twenty minutes of surfing their wifi, she figured it'd be the first place they'd look for her. She decided that she didn't want to be found, and promptly left.

She had no money on her, just her phone and charger. And it was freezing cold outside, the wind tearing through the streets with enough venom to upturn umbrellas, or wrench them right out of hands. She knew something was going on with Thor, but still no call from Jane. The horrible atmosphere matched her mood anyway, so she stewed in it.

The messages from Bucky were all: "_Woman, get back here, we should talk it out_," while the ones from Steve were more along the lines of: "_I'm alone now if you want to meet up_," which sounded to her like they were collaborating an ambush.

The fact of the matter was Darcy did not want to talk it out. She didn't have words for how she felt.

She was stormy on the inside, angry and worried and scared. She had a lot of feelings about Bucky Barnes, and none of them were luke warm. He made her so angry she could spit, but he was also someone she could quite clearly see featuring in the rest of her life.

Maybe not as a boyfriend, or a husband, but something else. He was the stone she sharpened her claws on. She hadn't really needed him until he was already there, imbedded in her coding like an occasionally helpful virus.

And Steve - she had the revelation that she did want Steve. That wasn't to say she'd pick him up like she had Bucky; there was a certain way to handle America's golden boy, and the way she and Bucky operated was not it.

When it came to sex, Darcy liked it. She just liked sex. But she liked to feel something motivating her - be that raw animal magnetism and months of verbally abusing someone or a genuine love, whatever. It reflected how she felt about people.

Where words failed, sex translated.

When she slept with Bucky the first time, he'd been almost timid with her. He had marched her back into her room and she hadn't known why, until he wrapped her up in his arms like he belonged to a black and white movie and laid a kiss on her.

The removing of the clothes had been slow, careful. He didn't speak one word, but kept asking if she was okay, if she knew what she was doing. She ended up disrobing herself before him to answer - a memo he apparently got, judging by the resulting tackle onto her bed.

Bucky's hands had wondered, sculpted, tested, prodded. His tongue had tasted every line, curve, bone and dip her body had to offer. She had been clawing and pushing and pulling, ripping with her teeth, sucking dark marks into his shoulders, until she finally just growled:

"Come on, solider!"

And his reply was a very saucy:

"Yes ma'am."

_Yes ma'am._

The half lidded eyes he'd gave her were something to shiver at too. And the pace he'd found, the angle he constructed, the nails in skin, teeth in nipples, everything, it was so good. She had thought he'd be the first to suggest they keep at it, but pursued other people. After all, he was a man, and from another era.

She thought he'd be for it. But no, he'd wanted to what? Scoop her up as his girl? Oh no. Darcy was not ready for a one-on-one thing. She liked sex, she didn't like Bucky.

"Boys are dumb." she concluded, and checked her phone again.

But he insisted. And he'd been lovely, until he wasn't. There were some point where she was fairly certain that she might have returned the lovely. She had to force herself to remember that all the shenanigans that had rocked her world had started Friday night. There she was, Sunday afternoon, not sure of how or why things escalated, or where she was going from there.

"You just gonna mope the whole day away?" She knew his drawl from anywhere, so she didn't bother looking up to see who had taken the vacancy across from her. He sighed, flicked out his phone. "Steve, I found her. Be home soon."

Darcy heard the affirmative and put her head down on her arms.

"Better call him back. I'm not going."

"C'mon, cupcake, we got somewhere to be."

"My feet hurt." she grumbled.

"I'll kiss 'em better."

"Ew." they'd been marinating in wet sock and boot all day.

"Fine, I'll carry you around all romantic, whatever you want."

"I'm not going." she told the table top again. "I don't want to talk. Every time I talk to you I end up fighting. I'm tired, I'm wet, and not in the good way, and Jane-..." she didn't know how to finish off how she was feeling, or if he had realized the shitty weather was a direct result of a guy he fought beside on a frequent basis.

He got up, dropped into a crouch by her side.

"Worried about Jane?"

"...Yes."

"Wanna stop by an' see her?"

"No. She'll call me." she lifted her head, staring at his mild expression, the way he hovered so casually at her side. He was doing that thing where he looked genuinely concerned, and she put a hand over her mouth, sighing hard. "What the hell, Bucky?"

"What?" he cocked his head, waiting with a small frown.

"This - thing, we're in. What the hell are we doing?"

"No idea." he shrugged one shoulder. "Steve thinks he can fix us, though."

"We aren't broken." Darcy muttered, and sat back in her chair. "He isn't my dad."

"Yeah, well, tell that to him." he brushed an eyelash off her face with a careful knuckle. "Look, Darce... What I said about you bein' a tramp...? You aren't. I was on the defensive. I, uh... Have some feelings. About Steve."

"Yeah. I figured that out for myself, thanks. I know it's hard to believe, me not being a spy..."

"No, but you're smart. Threw me for a loop when you said it." he looked around the cafe, licking his lower lip. "But uh, where- _when_, I come from... Had to keep that under a tight lid, you know? And I mean, I'm so used to protectin' Steve that - look, sometimes I see threats and there are none. You aren't a threat, but I still - I gotta look out for him. Have my entire life, you know?"

"Yeah." she propped her face on her fist. "Still doesn't excuse the way you tried to hurt me, though."

"Darce, I was trying to get you off subject 'cuz you hit too close to home. And it worked, but you were right. I do... you know."

"_'Like_, like' Steve."

"Yeah." he stood, smoothing his hands over his jeans as he rose. "Somethin' like that."

"Is that why he's been acting weird with you?"

"Sharp as a tack, huh, Lewis?" he smiled at her, and it made her insides gooey.

"I'm a woman, it's my lot in life. Did you tell him, or did he figure it out?"

"I said something. Implied it. Sort of only figured it out for myself the other day. I mean, I didn't exactly say it flat out, or you know, mention I'd date him or whatever..." he looked at the chair opposite her. "D'you wanna go now, or...?"

"I'm not going. You can. If you want to stay, we can talk. If not..." she shrugged. "Better go, Steve'll be waiting."

"Well. I guess my decision's been made for me then. Want some coffee?"

She shook her head, rubbed her shoulder, and gave him a slow once over, pausing on his black leather jacket, the collar of a black t-shirt contrasting against his throat.

"Have you changed shirts?"

"Yeah, had to. Steve ripped the other one off me."

"...Right." she cocked a brow. "Gonna share, Buck, or just leave it all mysterious in the air like that?"

"Mystery is my thing." he reminded her, and cocked a half grin that made her mouth pick up to spite her mood.

"Of course. I'll ask Steve, then."

"You do that." his grin spread just a little bit wider.

She looked at her hands, the blue color in her palms. She could feel herself coming down with something already from running around in the rain in damp clothes all day, starting with the chesty cough she'd developed about an hour ago. Her face was wind burnt and the tips of her ears were ice cold, along with her numb, red nose. She linked her fingers and leaned back in the chair, staring at Bucky, who was busy watching her with a smaller, much more concerned looking smile.

"Darcy, I wanna ask you something."

"No, I will not marry you."

He snorted, loudly.

"Don't flatter yourself. I would've at least got on my knee for that. I'm old fashioned, that way."

"You sure are." she cocked her head, fingers still rubbing her shoulder. "Well?"

"I... I wanted to ask you to be my girl." he swallowed, but kept her eye contact. "Will you, be my girl?"

She rose both brows at him.

"I know I ask you all the time, but seriously, are you on drugs?"

"No, I'm not. I just thought - I tell you you're my girl, but I never asked."

"That's because you know the answer is 'no'. We've been over this. I'm using you for your body."

"I don't think you mean that. See, I had this thought, earlier today. I thought: 'Now, Darcy is one of the strongest ladies I know. She's clever as all hell and feisty -'"

"Cut out the flattery."

"Point is, I was thinking about that guy. Uh, Ryan?"

"Do you 'like, like' him too?"

"No. Just Steve."

Something warm melted the last of Darcy's cold rage. She relaxed into the booth, and he reached out and took her hand. She scowled at him, but he just smiled, knowing the battle was done.

"My brief ex, Ryan?"

"Yeah. I remember you talkin' to Steve about it when I first moved in with you. You said something about pre-emptive stratagems. And I thought it was weird for a dame so pretty to be talkin' war, so I listened in. Do you remember what you said?"

"Not really." she shrugged, and that hurt. He got up and sat next to her, his thumb doing some fairly amazing things to the muscle in her shoulder. She could've purred.

"You said, and I quote: "I can see potential for this mission to go AWOL, and I know that when it does, I'll get hurt by the fallout." You know why I remember that?"

"Because you're a spy?"

"Because you were talkin' about datin' a guy like a war zone."

"Love is a battlefield."

"That song is stupid. Love ain't a war."

"I said 'battlefield'."

"Woman, what exactly do you think a war is made up of?"

"Aliens from Asgaurd or beyond."

"Aside from those, dummy." he leaned in and kissed her cheek. "What I'm saying is, if you see me like handling a war, I'm just gonna have to put up a white flag. I ceasefire. I wanna sign the peace treaty now."

"So no more fighting?"

"I don't think you 'n' I will ever stop fighting." he told her bluntly. "We're too damn honest to do it. I get enough lies outta my job, I don't need 'em when I come home. That's why I want you, Darce, to be my girl. Because you've never, not once, made me think you're a liar."

"You talk some pretty sweet game." she told him, and allowed him to kiss her shoulder, his breath warming her neck. She thought about his persistence, and the other girls he had 'dated'. None had lasted very long - none had fought with him like she did but he'd some how gone through girls like changing his underwear.

(Assuming he wore some to begin with, because she was sure - from experience - that he flew commando.)

At worst, she'd have to deal with awkward ex-stuff by the end of the week. At best... something might come of this, 'relationship' thing.

"I...Have a counter proposal."

"Oh, here we go."

"I don't want to be your girl." she told him frankly, but turned so he could see she was smiling. "I want you to be my boy."

"Semantics." he kissed her shoulder, didn't so much as offer a pretense of thinking about it. "Fine. If that's how you want it, baby doll, you got me. I'm yours."

"Good." she pressed a very light kiss on his nose.

His grin made her smile in reply; the warmth that bled out of him, some kind of solid weight had pleasantly bolted her to the floor. Darcy had only ever planned to go to college - she stumbled across opportunities and she took them, never planning ahead, only floating. But this thing with Bucky felt solid. It felt like she was in for the long haul, like this was a plan worth making.

The only problem was, it felt lopsided, like only half of her was still in the air, somewhere.

"Take me home, solider?"

"Right away, ma'am."

* * *

"Steve! STEEEEEEEEVVVEEEEE!"

He just couldn't leave them alone for two minutes!

He flew to the door, pulled it open; saw Bucky carrying Darcy up the stairs like a bride, her legs dangling over his forearm. She was grinning wide, victorious, and he was wearing a perpetually satisfied smirk, his hair dripping from the rain.

"Oh, there you are, captain my captain!" she said brightly, twinkling her toes at him. "How lovely of you to get the door!"

"I feel like I'm missing something." he said, very amused, and swung aside to let them in. For a split second, Bucky turned to meet him, and they locked eyes. Darcy was still grinning in the middle, looking mischievous as anything from the winter solider's arms. Bucky took a second, cocked a brow at him, then shuffled in the apartment.

"Thought you weren't going to think about it?" he mused, looking over his shoulder. He dropped Darcy on the couch - she popped up again to see Steve's expression turn to mortification.

"_Bucky_."

"Relax, Rogers." he drawled.

"What? Hang on, what?" she looked between them. "Oh, hey, does this have something to do with Steve ripping your shirt off?"

"No." Steve said abruptly, and shut the door with a snap.

"So you two did get into a fight. That, I would've liked to see. I've been wanting to see Steve kick your ass since I met you." she turned in the chair, unlacing her boots and pulling them off.

"Uh - I, uh - gotta..." Steve was flustered, because now he was thinking about it. Thinking about having been up against the wall, crashing Bucky back onto the bench, being on the floor, rolling until he topped. He swallowed a hard mouthful. "Gotta... go. For a run."

"It's pouring with rain." Darcy reminded him, and glanced over her shoulder. "Oh, c'mon, Steve, it's not like I care. I'm on your side. He could use some sense knocked into him."

"N-N-o, I should - gym - be back in a few hours."

"Take your phone with you!" she told him. Because sometimes he forgot, and she'd call, and hear the ringtone bipping from his room, or the kitchen, or wherever he had left his 'mobile cellular device'.

Darcy sent him a cheerful wave over her shoulder but he was just charging around with his head down. She was going to say goodbye, but Bucky beat her to it, with a nasty:

"Mature, Rogers. Real fucking mature."

And he didn't answer. He just left.

"What the hell'd you do to Steve?"

"He started it."

"What aren't you telling me?"

"He'd kick my head in if you knew. I would like to tell you-"

Darcy's phone went off. The merry ringtone did not match the feeling of dread she felt upon seeing Jane's name on her screen. It wasn't, however, a phone call - just a text. It read a rather ominous:

* * *

**From: JaneyJ**

_Thor is okay. Weather should clear up. We're okay, I feel good. Talk to you soon. x_

* * *

But Darcy didn't believe it. She was so wound up in trying to furiously articulate a response that she completely forgot about what Bucky had been talking about, how her curiosity had piqued when he'd gone all deliciously awkward and unsure. She had been meaning to prod him about it, but it would have to wait.

For after she finished texting Jane, he carried her to the shower to show her how roomy it really was.

* * *

_Five Days Later_

* * *

Darcy was in one of Bucky's shirts and some of his army regulation socks, because it made her feel slightly less crappy.

It was the middle of the night - he was unconscious in his room, where she'd left him - though she couldn't sleep. Something had been weighing on her for a while, now, a nagging thought at the back of her head she dismissed over, and over again, until it developed a volume control issue and a repeat button.

She was nursing a cup of hot chocolate to her mouth, almost totally absorbed in thought. The kitchen light wasn't on, but the light over the oven was, and it shed enough light that she could see a someone peering around the corner.

"'Teebe?" she croaked. She had been fighting off _The Illness_, but she was losing the battle. No amount of rest or Lemsip could get rid of it, and it made her sound like her grandmother. "Don't be so creeby. Ged ober here."

"Sorry." he sheepishly shuffled into her line of sight, arms crossed over his bare midriff. He wasn't wearing a shirt. She nearly creamed her panties, considering she wasn't actually wearing pants. "Feeling any better?"

"Doh." she sniffed to evidence the fact. He smiled a little painfully, and turned to the cupboards. "Wad are you doing?"

"I'm gonna make you somethin' my momma used to make me when I got sick. It doesn't taste nice, but I promise it does the job."

"Uh huh. Can't taste anyding anyway." she sipped her hot chocolate and tried to keep her knees together, lest he catch a view of her little red undies. "Why are you awake?"

"I haven't been to sleep yet." he told her calmly. "Sometimes I can't."

"Oh." that was sad. She hadn't known that. "Id it ofden?"

"Not as often as it was, when I first came out of the ice. It's been better since rooming with you." he had pulled out like half the cupboards and laid them out on the bench, sniffing things, weighing things in his hands. She couldn't stop blatantly staring at his back when it was turned.

"Good." she said, and rubbed her head. "Doh... How's Jedica?"

"Jess is good. She's got this fancy vegan rally thing coming up for a week tomorrow all the way in Texas, so I'll make the next movie night for sure."

"Id's about damn dime." she mumbled, knowing full well he would hear. He sent her a quick smile, but went back to measuring cinnamon and things she didn't even know they had into a pot. He put water in it, then put it on the stove. "You look like a widtch."

"I'm a good witch."

The last time they'd sat down to watch a movie together, it had been the Wizard of Oz. He'd missed Narnia, but next was Transformers, because it was Bucky's turn to chose and he'd had his head set on it for a while. It wasn't the same without Steve, and movie night had slowly lost it's appeal to Darcy.

"Dure you are, solider." she drank some more of her hot chocolate to stop looking at his butt. He was wearing grey drawstring track pants, and they did some wonderful things to him, starting with the butt, but also outlining the width of his thighs and the crotch bulge.

"How's Jane and Thor?" Steve looked over his shoulder. She was caught perving and didn't say a single word about it.

"Habn't deen Dor. She's bedder, updest about getting bregnant widout planning."

And Darcy would know, seeing as her period was late.

"Maybe it's a good thing. A blessing in disguise."

"Yeah, or id could ruin her life."

"It won't, though." he stirred the pot. "She's a smart lady. She will find a way to work and take care of the baby. And Thor? He's gonna be a great father. It's not like Jane doesn't love Thor, or can't afford it. It could really make them."

"Or break dem."

He just chuckled at her negativity and tipped some of the ungodly beverage into a mug. He put the rest back on the stove, and handed Darcy the mug, looking apologetic.

"It would've been better if my mom had've made it." he said mildly.

She took a swig, but couldn't taste anything. The texture, however, was_ intensely_ unpleasant. She could feel something gritty, something suspiciously plant-like, and something gooey in amongst the lot of the slime now in her mouth. It was disgusting, but she swallowed, pulled a face, and went in for seconds.

Steve cleaned up whatever mess he'd made in the kitchen, and by the time he had done, Darcy'd finished her mug of medicine, scowling at the cup like it was its fault the contents had been so horrific.

"Told you it was kinda gross." he said, and rinsed it for her.

"Nah, id wad okay." she smiled, and sniffed. "Wanna wadch some DV?"

"Actually, I'd like that a lot."

* * *

It was hard, for Darcy, who was now sitting next to Steve, who was like a human space heater. She'd had two hot beverages and had pulled on a blanket over her legs to keep herself mildly decent. Infomercials are only ever entertaining when Captain America is commentating how genius they are and how badly he wants to buy everything, but he stopped after a while.

She woke when the sun hadn't even risen, to find Steve sound asleep with his head tipped onto her head. She was curled into his side, one leg hooked over his thigh. Her arms were around his waist, and she had managed to put one hand in his pants pocket without waking him.

He had one hand on the leg tossed over his lap, the other arm around her shoulders, fingers threaded through her hair like he'd fallen asleep stroking it - which, she remember vaguely, he had been.

She was cozy warm, and everything was great, but she really needed to pee.

Getting up wasn't a problem until she had to move his head. She tried to wake him gently but he was dead to the world, completely knocked out. So she had to kind of wriggle off the couch and slide out from under her, moved his head into a more comfortable position, tucked the blanket around him and went to the bathroom. On the way back to Bucky's room, she realized she hadn't turned the stove top light off, nor the TV.

With a resigned sigh, she did so, first the stove, then going over to find the remote buried under Steve's kneecap. When she pulled it out, he murmured something unintelligible, but didn't wake. She clicked it off, patted his knee for goodnight, and tried to get back to the bedroom.

She hit the couch instead, tripped over one of Steve's huge feet. She tipped forward, realized she was going to crash into the coffee table, then threw herself back, falling onto the couch with a puff of surprise.

Steve rolled on top of her.

At first, it was comical. She was giggling quietly to herself and didn't actually mind the fact she was pantsless. Her legs were both to one side anyway, so there was no problem. No, the problem was that she couldn't wake Steve, nor could she push him up - hundreds of pounds of super human muscle was heavy. He put his hands up, cupping her ribcage, and she thought: _"Oh hey, excellent, he's waking up," _but he wasn't really.

He was just getting comfortable.

He sort of - nuzzled against her boobs and sighed something dreamy, then was still and solid, his weight heavy, but comforting. Her hands were on a shoulder each, trying to coax him awake, to no such luck.

The the light clicked on.

"Buggy!" she whispered.

"Oh, yeah." he scratched absently at his stomach. "Getting started without me, Darce?"

"Doh!" she sniffed. "A little help?"

"Why? Let him sleep, he's been pacing all night."

"Led him sleep? _On _me? Buggy-!"

"No, I'm not on drugs." he bent over the arm of the couch, cocking a brow at where Steve's head was. "That looks pretty comfy. We're gonna have to try it sometime."

"You're a lousy boyfred." she told him in a whispered hiss.

"Why are you panicking?" he leaned to the side. "He's not even wearing a shirt, what's wrong with you? He hasn't got a hard on, has he?"

"Doh, but-" she flapped her hands at him. "I'm dot wearing any pants!"

"Yeah, still not seeing a problem here, Lewis." he rubbed his eyes with his knuckles, sighed heavily. "Just let him sleep. He'll wake up earlier than you and go back to his own room before you can say anything. It's not a big deal, Darce."

"I don't udderstand you." she told him, not for the first time.

"Sleep tight." he bent and kissed her forehead, then paused, and kissed Steve's temple. He lingered over her, checking that was okay, but she was melting, the resisting arms having wound around Steve's shoulders in reply to the show of affection. "You never know. You might feel better."

"I'd feel bedder if you would stay." she told him grumpily.

So Bucky turned off the light, got himself a blanket, and fell asleep on the armchair beside them.


	9. Chapter 9

Steve woke up feeling warm, and safe. He stretched his back to popping, hands curling further into the covers. He was feeling heavy headed and lazy - he had slept deeply, and well, nose full of a scent he didn't know the name of. It was coconut and cinnamon, worn t-shirt and clean skin.

At first, when he opened his eyes, he couldn't figure out why he was in the living room. He remembered infomercials, of Darcy falling asleep on his shoulder, snoring slightly with congestion. He'd played with her hair, twisted it around his fingers, pretended in the darkness that she was his girl... And then he had passed out _decidedly not_ cold.

But where had the blanket come from? Why was the TV off?

He looked up at her, slowly raising from his position on her chest, letting her arms fall from his shoulders. He caught her hands before they could just uselessly flop onto her stomach, maybe wake her up. She was breathing easier, but looked pale, still unwell. He pressed the back of his hand to her forehead and felt for a fever, taking precarious seconds to brush away loose strands on her face.

He twined her fingers with his now to rectify the mistake of letting her wrist go, smiling softly down at her. Her mouth all pouty, soft looking... He'd only wanted to pretend the night before she was his, but he had, and it had felt so right. Her on his arm, all cuddled up. He had almost forgotten Jessica completely, only remembering her when he'd pressed a kiss on the top of her head, and hadn't smelt the sour note of singed hair. Darcy let hers dry out into natural curls, but Jessica straightened hers religiously.

He found himself hovering, hand cupping the side of her face. His eyes had focused on her mouth, the easy rise of her chest. He wasn't really going to kiss a sleeping girl...?

"She can be pretty angelic, when she's sleeping." Bucky murmured, and Steve nearly fell off the couch. He wrenched his hand away from her and held it to his chest like he had been burnt. "Is she runnin' hot?"

Steve shook his head. He realized then that her t-shirt rode high on her belly, that her underwear were on show, and promptly pulled the covers off his shoulders to protect her, in some small sense. He looked up at Bucky from under his lashes, noticed that he looked sleep worn - his hair at all angles - as if he'd just woken.

"Did you sleep there?" he asked lowly.

"Darcy asked me to." he shrugged his shoulder. "You were unconscious. What was I gonna do?"

"Coulda woke me up." he mumbled, and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Tried. You were out like a light."

Steve made a low noise.

"Can't believe you'd let me sleep all over your girl, like that."

"She ain't my girl." he was told, with a particular twist to his mouth. "I'm her fella. Seems to make her happier, that way. All I want is to make her happy."

Steve didn't know what that had to do with anything.

"...But I... I'd never let you do that to my girl."

"I wouldn't want your girl. It's_ just _Darcy." he cocked a brow. "She isn't able to be contained to just me."

"So what, you'd let, say, Tony Stark-"

"If Tony Stark tried to touch her, it'd be the last time Tony Stark had hands." the eyebrow came down. He settled back into the couch. "It's _just you_, Steve."

The blonde ducked his head, looked down at her, how she'd turned her face away from the noise of them talking. Her chest was rising and falling gently, her hands abandoned on her abdomen, looking lonely. Her hair was chaotic around her head, all thick barrel curls twined into an elegant mess - her lashes fluttered with the movement of her eyes underneath. Steve wanted to know what she was dreaming.

"About... the other day." he said in a murmur. "We can't... Do that."

"What day?"

"We, uh... You know."

"I don't."

"We..._kissed_."

"Yeah." Bucky's grin was raunchy, cracking across his face like lightning. "Want a repeat, Steve?"

"We _can't._"

"I like how you don't bother denying it." he teased lightly. But Steve kept his head down, looking guilty, almost to the point of nausea. Bucky sighed. "Why not?"

Steve shot him a dark look.

"I'm not going to hurt Darcy like that." he said firmly. "That's why not."

"You should hear what Darcy has to say on the subject."

"_You told her_?" Steve breathed, mortified, but also quite relieved. His heart was banging loudly against his sternum, and he found his mouth had popped open. "Why would you do that? What did she say?"

"I didn't say we did it. I asked her what she'd think if I told her I had some feelings toward you I don't have toward other men." he shrugged one shoulder. "She thought it was obvious... it was part of the reason we had such a big fight, she called me out on it. Didn't care."

"You should tell her what we did."

"What_ you_ did. I was just gonna punch you in the face. Don't get me wrong, though, I liked your version way better." he took a pause, smirk only slightly fading. "Is that why you won't look at me? You wanna kiss me?"

"S'not the point." Steve mumbled, and became very self conscious of the fact he was minus a shirt. "You need to tell her."

"And I will." he agreed, and laced his fingers together on his chest. "Do you wanna know what I think?"

"Not really."

"I think our girl is gonna be peaches 'n' cream about it." he relaxed further into the armchair. "I think she's gonna be a little jealous that she weren't there."

"Why'd you say that? _Our_ girl?"

"That's just how it is. Turn it down, Rogers, you'll wake her up." Bucky nodded to her, the frown marring her naturally red mouth. The fact she was sleeping at all was a good thing; she'd been lethargic but unable to obtain sleep from headaches and sore throats that had woken her up during the night. Bucky had been growing steadily more and more worried about her, but didn't want to suggest a doctor.

The thing he had quickly learned about Darcy Lewis was that she did not need anyone to take care of her. Or, that's what she thought, vehemently.

"She's not my girl, Buck." Steve flushed. "I-...She made it clear, a couple times now, she doesn't want me."

"Has she?"

"Yes." Steve said flatly. "She has."

"Sensing a story there, buddy."

"Not going to share it. Darcy doesn't want me. Said it flat out, end of story. So whatever you've got in your head-"

"Maybe she doesn't want what you 'n'... what's her name?"

"Her name is Jessica."

"Yeah, her." Bucky put both hands behind his head and arched his spine, yawning widely. Steve tried very hard to ignore the pull of muscle in his arms, or the cut of his ribcage against the fabric of his grey t-shirt. Bucky, of course, decided he was comfortable like that, and kept his arms where they were, a smirk winding on his mouth.

"I don't know what you're trying, Bucky." Steve murmured, his eyes focused on his knees. "But I want you to stop. Someone's gonna get hurt."

"No, they won't."

"It'll be me, or it'll be her." he glared at the sergeant. "It'll never be you. So you're not concerned, you don't see it. I'll be fine - I'm used to getting cast off to the side. If you hurt Darcy..."

He'd walked in on something worse than them making love on the couch the other day - her confiding in him, speaking to him in conspiratorial whisper. Bucky's face had been intense, straight mouthed, listening closely to what she had to say. Their hands were together on her lap; his thumb smoothed over her palm. She focused on that, looking sincerely worried, and very ill, the timbre of her voice filling the room with nervous effort.

When Steve had walked in, Bucky'd shot him a look, alerting Darcy to his presence. She stiffened across the shoulders and smiled at him, brightly asking him how he was, but he'd interrupted something, and whatever it was had upset Bucky, who put his arms around her waist and his head to her shoulder, keeping silent the entire time Steve was there.

Darcy had made every effort to keep Steve in the loop since meeting him, going out of her way on several occasions to inform him on what SHIELD neglected to. The only reason they would talk so privately was if they were talking about him, and it made him feel like dirt. Still, he'd protect her, because leaving behind all the people he knew in the forties just might have been worth it if he got her, whatever part of her she wanted him to have.

He'd gladly take her friendship, but would still defend her heart. The fact that Darcy was so quiet, so near and nervous with Bucky; it spoke volumes to Steve. She was imparting something that weighed on her - weighing on them both - and it meant that he was under her skin. She had always turned first to Steve, citing him as her best friend, first confidant.

But just like the old days, Steve was being left out.

"You'll what?" Bucky's eyebrow shot up. "You keep makin' all this noise, Captain, but you never quite follow through. You wouldn't be able to do a damn thing, if I hurt Darcy. You're not involved in this relationship, you don't have a say. That, of course, could be fixed, if you got rid of Skeletor." he felt that were Darcy conscious, she'd be very excited about the pop culture reference. He tried to remember to tell her.

Steve's eyes nearly fell out of his skull.

"What?"

"You heard me. If you joined in this little shindig, I'd take what you said more seriously."

"And... how exactly would that work?" Steve got to his feet. Darcy's hand flopped in the space he'd occupied.

"You're smart, Captain. You'll figure it out."

"You can't just - _propose_ that to me! You haven't even spoken to Darcy about it!"

"Haven't I?" his smirk was ever-present, but the glitter in his eyes was not.

Steve thought back to them talking so seriously, what Bucky was alluding to. What he'd heard of that was Darcy telling Bucky something, not the other way around - he knew from the way Bucky had reacted, so clingy, that it wasn't what they were talking about. The way she'd held the back of his head was not to console him about not agreeing to a threesome. It had been more intense.

"You weren't talking about - _that_ - the other day." Steve told him. "You weren't."

"No, we weren't. We were talking about how Darcy might be pregnant."

Steve had to sit down again. Bucky cleared his throat, shifted in his seat. There was a prolonged pause, in which Steve, for the first time in days, couldn't take his eyes off Bucky, and Bucky couldn't make himself look up.

"Have-...Have you two been..." Steve swallowed. "Safe?"

"She's on the pill. But then Jane got preggers with Thor and she's on some super safe contraption thing in her arm. Darcy thinks my DNA might be stronger than average protection... which is why, aside from her bein' deathly ill, we haven't been... at it." he untucked his hands from his head, folded them in his lap. "I don't think she's takin' it very well. I tried to tell her that I wasn't gonna leave if she had my baby but... She said somethin' about a ball and chain. She ain't ready. And I'm scared she's gonna get rid of it."

"It's only a maybe at this stage, right?" Steve ventured. "She hasn't done a test or anything?"

"She's more'n' a couple days off the monthly visit."

"That doesn't mean she's pregnant. It could be - it could be 'cuz she's sick, or- stressed? I think?" Steve didn't know a damn thing about women and their lady time, but he'd heard casual conversations here and there since his awakening in the future, and had pieced together that little bit of information. That, and the insatiable need for candy. "She might just be stressed, Bucky."

"But what if she is pregnant? What if I've got a kid in there, somewhere?" Bucky bit into the inside of his mouth - he hadn't wanted to break it to Steve like this, but now everything was pouring out of him. Darcy had told him she'd handle telling Steve, but she'd been honestly waiting for blood to show before that happened. He happened to think she was ashamed, scared of it, where he was so nervously excited.

He wanted six kids, he had to start somewhere.

"Well, if she is, we'll figure it out." Steve nodded. "You know that. There's time to plan, time to organise. Time to figure out what to do, to make changes, allowances."

"But what if she got rid of my kid, Steve?" he took in a suspiciously shaky breath. "I-... I say there's nothin' she could do to make me hate her, but... If she killed my kid...?"

"Buck." Steve said. "Listen to me. That's her decision, unless Stark comes up with a way to put her baby makin' bits into you."

Bucky blinked at him, frowning slightly.

"Not to mention who we are, Bucky. You just can't have babies and not worry about people who might target them. Darcy's handy with a taser, but she can't taze everybody she thinks might hurt her. You can't just, expect her, to grow a baby in her and not be a little apprehensive about it. You aren't married. You've been together a week - not even. So just-... Take a breath. Cool off."

"Easy for you to say." Bucky mumbled, and folded tighter arms over his chest. "You haven't got a kid on the line."

"You don't know that. And even if I did, I wouldn't be actin' like you are, that's for damn sure." Steve frowned at him. "You think she's pregnant and you've been lettin' her stay this sick?"

"She won't go to a doctor. I nearly tossed her over my shoulder the other day and took her anyway. She won't go."

"I heard." the resulting fight had been one of the biggest. Steve hadn't realized why it had been so intense - Darcy didn't like hospitals, neither did Bucky - but if Bucky was feeling particularly paternal about his baby... "I will take her."

"She ain't gonna go just because you bat your eyelashes at her." Bucky scoffed.

"Wanna bet?" Steve had forgot that Bucky liked to gamble. When he'd first come out of the ice, and someone had said: 'Wanna bet?' he'd actually pulled out his wallet to put money down. It had been a phrase that gotten up his nose, the stupid challenge that wasn't really a challenge as much as something to say to undermine a friend.

"You're on." his grin was back, but in comparison to his norm, it was faded. "Stakes?"

"Ten bucks says I can get her to go." Steve looked around for his wallet. It was in his room, on his bedside table, beside his phone.

"Nothin' underhanded, Steve. You can't tell her 'ice-cream' and take her to a doctor."

"That's you, not me." Steve assured him. "I'm sure she'll see reason when I explain my concerns. I'll tell her upfront."

Bucky considered, tapping his lower lip in thought.

"I want another kiss, and you're on."

Steve could feel his face flood with heat. He believed he could get Darcy to see a doctor, but the stakes were too high. He couldn't do that to Darcy - she was innocent, in the grand scheme of things. He didn't want to hurt her, or hurt their chances of having a relationship.

"Not a big one." Bucky corrected. "Not like the other day. No, just a little one. An itty bitty kiss. That's what I want."

"But Darcy..."

"Darcy will want to film it." he shrugged, and cocked his brow. "Do you even know her, Steve?"

"Better'n you think you do." he said tightly. "You're on. She'll go if I ask."

"Whatever you say, Captain. Speaking of the devil..." his eyes flicked down to where Darcy was stirring, her forearm over her eyes. She made a grumpy moaning noise, lowered her arm, and opened one eye, just a slit.

"Good morning, Darcy." Steve said warmly. He tucked down the side of her blanket to better see her face - she hummed low, snuggling into the covers, murmuring her sleepy salutations in return. "How do you feel?"

"Heaps better. You made a potion and now I'm well. Gonna burn you for witchcraft." she teased, voice thick with sleep. He touched her head again, frowning at the warmth. "Also, you're mostly naked. That's a good sight to wake up to. Makes a girl all tingly."

He blushed, glanced at Bucky. She arched her neck, looking at him upside down. He winked at her, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Good thing you're feeling better." Bucky mused. "Steve wants to take you to a doctor."

"Psh, whatever. Some more of that magic, I'll be fine." she squirmed, yawning behind her hand. "What do you even put in that?"

"S'far as I can tell, everything but the kitchen sink." Bucky supplied. "He'd been makin' it for years. I haven't figured it out yet. He won't tell you, either. But that's like he won't tell you that as you lay sleeping, he wanted to plant a kiss on you."

"_Bucky!_" Steve gaped, wide eyed at him, then looked down to Darcy. "I- I didn't-! Darce, I wouldn't-"

"Geeze, don't gotta be all defensive about it. You'll hurt my feelings if you protest any harder." she said, cheeks slightly pink. His stutter dwindled into an embarrassed: "_I didn't._.."

"I would." she teased him.

"So would I." Bucky mused. "In fact, I already did. Did it the other day. He's a better kisser than you are."

"How_ dare_ you!" she sat bolt upright, hair flopping in her eyes, and spun so fast, and hard, her spine cracked. Steve_ knew_ she wasn't going to take it as well as his stupid sergeant suggested she would, _knew_ it was a bad idea to goad her like that. When he'd told Bucky to tell Darcy, he'd meant in _private_, and _gently_. He put his hands up, tried to wind the situation down, but she charged on:

"Like hell he's a better kisser than I am! I have years of mouth-to-mouth experience on him!"

"He's pretty rough about it. Like a drowning man for air."

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Have you been reading my romance novels again?"

"Chyeah, romance my ass. They're gettin' worse, Lewis, all smutty like that. I musn't be hittin' the right notes, if you're reading them still."

"I read them because they're romantic." She sniffed self importantly, trying in vain to smooth out the nest on her head. She lifted her chin at him, but was smiling slightly. "Buy me flowers."

"You don't _like_ flowers. You'd have to look after them and they'd just wilt and die and you'd get all upset about it."

"I like the _sentiment._ You're supposed to be old world, why haven't you bought me flowers yet?"

"You told me you hated flowers, and then gave me reasons why!" he was exasperated, tossing his hands up at her. "Woman, you told me you would toss 'em in my face if I tried to give you any!"

"Jesus, Bucky," Steve mused, still hot-faced over Bucky being so brash about his near-miss-kiss. "You're a horrible fella. I'll buy you some flowers, Darcy, don't worry."

"She doesn't even like them!"

"So?" she shot at him, though she was grinning, her whole face brighter, cheekier, than it had been in days. "I told you, I like the idea of them. That's what you do when you're in a relationship."

"No, that's what you do if you're in a dirty novel and you want sex."

"Well, shit, Barnes, hit the nail on the head there, didn't you?" both her brows wiggled at him.

He opened his mouth, closed it, opened it again. No sound came out.

Steve hid his laughter, very badly, behind his hand. Darcy sniggered with him, proud of the red tint in Bucky's cheeks.

"Shut up, Rogers."

"Geeze, Buck, buy your dame some flowers, would you?" he could barely get the words out without laughing. He couldn't stop grinning, though the nature of the conversation had colored his face.

"Is this the new fondue?" Darcy wondered, and Steve outrightly barked a laugh, agreeing with a nod, not quite able to look at her as he did so.

"Oh, yeah, very funny." Bucky's eyebrows pitched. "You offered to buy her some flowers just now. Gonna follow through on that?"

Steve abruptly remembered he had somewhere he needed to be, and left the room.

"Smooth, Buck."

"What can I say? Smooth is what I'm all about." he sat beside her, lifting the blanket to put his hands on her legs, digging his thumbs into her calves. "How are you feelin', baby doll?"

"Better. Steve gave me a potion last night. Have no idea what was in it."

"Oh, that." Bucky stretched his neck, looked at the pot that was still on the stove. "Yeah, that'll do it. Worked like a charm, when I was able to get sick. Listen, before Steve gets back, I really did kiss him."

She bit her lip, looked slightly bashful.

"How was it?"

He shrugged a shoulder, looked at his hands moving under the covers.

"Had to throw out the shirt I was wearing. Looked like I'd Hulked out in it."

"Intense?"

"Threw me onto the counter and all. Woulda had some decent bruises if I could keep any."

"Jesus." she thought about that a moment, finding his fingers under the blanket, squeezing them gently. "Did you kiss him?"

"Nope." he grinned, squeezed her fingers back. "That's the best part. I was pissed at him, had him pinned up on the wall, gonna hit him, and then_ he_ kissed _me_. Just about fell over myself."

"I bet you did. I'm glad I'm sitting now." she reached up to touch his face, her fingers ghosting over the rough stubble on his jaw. "If you wanted to... Uh, pursue Steve -"

"I want you, too."

"Greedy bastard, aren't you?"

"Very much, ma'am. I think the three of us could be pretty happy together."

"Probably." she glanced over his shoulder to double check Steve hadn't snuck in to listen to their conversation. "What about Jessica?"

"What about her? Called her Skeletor, before. That's right, isn't it?"

"Oh _yeah_ it is. Bad guy made outta skeleton. Nice work." she high fived the effort, beaming. "But, you're serious, about all of us?"

"Yeah, doll, I am. I think... I think we'd work well. Even out the kinks we have. He understands things about the past you can't. I need honesty, a total babe to come home to, I get you. He needs to let loose a little, he can with me. He wants romance, all that crap, and you can't get it from him."

"Got it all figured out, huh?" she pressed her lips together, watched him survey her expression. "Steve's not gonna go for it."

"I'm workin' on Steve. But you could work on him too. That's permission, Lewis. Provided you share the details."

"Uh huh. Well..." she swallowed, nervous. "I don't know. I don't want to start anything complex and then..." she motioned at her stomach.

"If it happens," he soothed. "It happens. It's a miracle and I'd marry you in a second, if that's what you wanted."

"I don't." she blinked at him.

"Then I won't. But if you needed me to be... stable, I could do that too. I want a family, a big one."

"You should see the Lewis household." she mumbled.

"Maybe I will, some day." he smiled, and leaned in for a kiss.

She didn't particularly want to mention that she had sworn off having kids. She had thought about them previously, but as it stood, as one of four other Lewis siblings, she didn't want another extension to her family. Her family life was - complicated. There was a reason she had been in the middle of nowhere to get her credits, why she was the only applicant to a shitty job that had nothing to do with her degree.

"Darce, Jane just texted." Steve said from the hall. He cleared his throat as Bucky ducked his head to her throat and continued to lavish attention on her, his hands climbing north of her kneecaps with no shame - until her phone bounced off the back of his head and Darcy caught it with a giggle.

* * *

**From: JaneyJ**

_S.O.S_  
_A.S.A.P_

* * *

She was up and dressed and gone within five minutes, practically dragging Steve out to drive her there. Bucky was left behind bewildered, uninformed, saluting them as they walked out the door with a loud:

"Make sure you look after her this time!"


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm not pregnant." she told Steve, taking a seat beside him.

"Really? How do you-? Oh." he blushed, surprisingly able to construct a full sentence after ward. "I thought that was what you wanted?"

She nodded, leaning her head to his shoulder. Naturally, almost instinctively, he lifted his arm and put it around her, rubbing her arm. He tipped his head until she lifted her eyes to him, weary and tired looking. He felt her forehead, the fever still brewing just behind her brow.

"You look upset, Darcy." he said softly. "Do you want to tell me why?"

"Bucky." she said lowly, for explanation, and then attempted to sink into his side.

* * *

After arriving at Stark Tower, Darcy had started cramping like a bitch. She had made Jane her first priority though, so even if the familiar feel of her uterus shed its lining hit her, she went straight to Jane's room. Thor was sitting on the floor outside her bedroom, head in his hands. He scrambled like a leggy Labrador to meet her, beaming.

"My lady Darcy! How did you know we needed you?" he took Steve's hand and shook it. Darcy had the distinct impression that were Steve a lesser man, he would've had his arm dislocated. "Steven! My brother of the shield! You have come to escort your fairest Darcy?"

"Something like that." Darcy answered, peering around his bulgy biceps. "Is she in there?"

"Verily." he said brightly. "I did not believe our comrade Tony when he promised me that Darcy would know to come for her."

"What are you talking about? Jane texted me."

"I do not know how she could have made such a communication with you. She took her cellular device to the window earlier this morn and set it amongst the clouds in a fit of despair." his face darkened - he embodied a rapidly brewing storm, as if he had been reminded that he was supposed to be unhappy.

"I'll fix it, buddy." she'd promised, and she did.

The problem was that Jane was scared. She was scared of Thor's being of another species, specifically, and trying to explain that to him only hurt her more and more that she thought about it. He throwing her phone out a window was her mother trying to ring and find out how she was; Jane had abandonment issues there, so the contact from her mother whilst becoming one was a recipe for Jane freaking out.

When Darcy had walked in the room, she had alphabetically stacked logs about children's deformities on one side of the bed - and how intermingled DNA would affect an offspring. She had blood work and samples from both herself and Thor pinned up on the walls, and several long calculations and theories about chromosomes spread in what appeared to be organized piles.

"Oh, wow." Darcy said, and Jane looked up from behind a book thicker than Darcy's glasses.

"Did he even consider that our baby could be born insane? Like his brother? If he has a mental illness in his family..." Jane's voice was weak as the theory. Her eyes were red-rimmed. "What if I have his baby and something goes wrong? Something I can't fix? What happens if we finally get through it all and the DNA doesn't match, or, or - what if his parents hate me?"

"No one hates you."

"What if the baby hates me, Darcy? What happens when I'm a terrible mother and I am to him, or her, what my mother is to me?"

"Well, there's a difference between your mother and you, for starters." she said gently. "Me."

And that's when Jane put her head down and started bawling.

How intense everything had suddenly become was a big factor in the way she was behaving.

Thor had started talking weddings and where they would live, what world they would raise their babe upon. He had been dreamily naming sons, fantasising about having girls with eyes and minds bright like their mother, when she had had a mild anxiety attack and asked him to give her some time alone.

He reminded her that she would not be alone for the next several months.

It did not help.

In comparison to Darcy's pregnancy scare, she felt like she had dodged a bullet. She held her friend through the worst and managed to talk her down, a little bit - she needed a shower, food, and sleep before she ventured into the land of people.

It took some reminding that she was science-biffs with two of the most advanced minds in their universe; that those two minds had connections to others who may be of more use in the field of genetics and DNA, though Bruce had a fairly good grasp of both.

Darcy knew she'd be okay when Jane said Tony and Bruce where like axons and would start firing if she stimulated them. Darcy didn't really understand the metaphor, but that was what made it normal.

She'd bummed a pad off Jane without asking; she knew where the stash was and it wasn't like Jane was going to be needing them. Jane was scared of telling her parents; she was an only child in a lonely family. Darcy couldn't help with familial problems, having run away from hers.

* * *

"I think Bucky will take it better than you think." Steve told her. Her hands crawled, spider-like, to his, and she held onto his fingers. Steve had this easy way of being a security blanket, and she wrapped his arms around herself further.

"I don't want him to get hurt." she murmured.

"He was worried about you thinking he'd skip out. Bucky's always been loyal, and he thinks you don't know that."

"Has he always been so loyal with you?"

"Absolutely." he smiled down on her.

"Have you always wanted to kiss him?"

His smile froze; eyes darted. The warm colour in his face drained, leaving him pale as a sheet and gulping. Darcy thought that maybe he'd stop talking to her forever, but her morbid curiosity had made her mouth work words her brain had demanded she keep to herself.

And instead of answering Darcy, he answered his ringing phone.

"This is Steve...? Oh, hey, Jess." and even though Darcy had wounded him with a question, it was that skinny-ninny's voice that made his smile fade away.

She didn't think it was worth a text, but the truth of it was, she didn't have the energy to tell Bucky face-to-face that she wasn't about to give birth to his first child. So she sent:

* * *

**To: HandsomeAsshole**

_Not pregnant. _

* * *

And she knew she was in trouble because she saw he'd read the message, but hadn't replied. A few times it showed that he was writing something, but nothing he ever sent.

"Ah, I was informed that Tony Stark was coming in?" the Doctor rose a slow brow at Steve, who was stammering something on the phone.

Tony had a bizarre way of showing people he cared. Steve only had to mention how ill she had been and he'd waved it off, letting Steve work himself into a rage about him casually summoning Darcy by way of Jane's resuscitated phone, before casually mentioning he'd just booked her in to New York's finest, and their car would be waiting for them when they got downstairs.

Steve had to bite his tongue. Darcy didn't know what part of her body she'd like to hit Tony in the face with - %80 of her was sure it would be a violent limb he wouldn't like.

"Give me a moment." the Dr. said, and returned to her office.

"Jess, I'm actually-...Yeah, baby, 'course I miss you. I been thinkin' about you all day. Yeah, last night too." he shifted in his seat. His hand flexed on her shoulder before he pulled away from her, unwrapping. Darcy felt the cold more acutely, and sneezed. "Bless you. No, not you - Darcy. At the Doctors. She's been sick-..."

He turned his face away.

"Jess, she needed a lift-"

Darcy could hear high pitched shrieking. She very badly wanted to snatch the phone away from him and give the bitch a piece of her mind, but didn't want to test her chances with wrestling Captain America without her taser.

"Baby, she's with Bucky still-"

The doctor came back, waved her in with a much kinder smile on her face - and lack of six inch stilettos. Darcy smiled back and stood, but scooped up Steve's fingers and held onto his hand, studying the various forms of art on the walls. Steve continued to listen to the woman yell on the other end for a little while longer, then murmured that he had to go, and hung up.

"Steve?" she waited until he was standing. "Love you."

"Love you too." he returned, with feeling, and held her hand through out the rest of the appointment.

* * *

"Bucky?" she knocked on his door, when the rest of the house was empty.

It opened. He was shirtless, breathing hard, sweating. The boxing bag was strung up on a reinforced steel chain on a suspender Tony had tossed together when they mentioned their punching bags had the habit of falling apart.

"Hey there." she said, almost timidly. "Would you... Like to talk?"

He cocked a brow, leaned against the door frame with his wrapped hands tucked under his arms.

"What is there to talk about?"

"The whole baby thing." she studied the blankness in his face.

"There's nothing to say. There wasn't a baby."

"Well, I don't know how you're feeling." she said evenly. "I have no idea why you'd want a baby, least of all with me. We've been together for five days, for Chrissake."

"We don't have to discuss it. There is no baby. It's fine, Lewis." he glanced over her shoulder at Steve, who was staring at him with a frown. "What the hell are you looking at?"

"You talking down to Darcy like she's done something wrong. Knock it off."

"And I suppose it's _you_ that's gonna make me?"

Steve let a breath slide between his teeth.

"Step outside, Barnes."

"Guys, if you start fighting- " Darcy put one hand up in each direction, stopping Bucky as he made an advance. "-I swear to god I'm getting my taser, I will shoot up this whole apartment, you feel me?"

"No, we aren't fighting, Darcy." Steve informed her. "I want a private word. Outside, Barnes."

He stormed by, giving him an almighty hip and shoulder for his peace making effort. Steve caught it in the gut - lifted a hand when Darcy started to follow after him, mouth popped open in a nasty barb half sent. Steve caught the door before Bucky had slammed it closed, and shut it more carefully behind him.

He turned on him then, chest raising and falling hard. He spoke through his teeth, eyes a grey blaze.

"You aren't involved. You don't have a right. Don't speak."

"I am involved, and this is America. I have a right to speak." he waited for a rebuttal, but all he got was a frustrated groan and an eye roll. "I told Darcy to text you. I thought it would give you time to cope."

"Well, it didn't." he rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. "I'm pissed off. Yeah, I am, don't look at me like that, like you know what I'm feeling. You don't. You know I want a horde of kids. You_ know_ I've always wanted a big family."

"You and Darcy are still new and-"

"It_ feels_ right. I know we're going far together, I knew it from the moment I first kissed her. I knew we're gonna make the distance."

"So why now?"

"Because I wanted it for so damn _long_."

"It's not the right time."

"I don't care if it ain't the right time, if it ain't logical, or practical, or what the fuck ever." he threw his hands up. "I want it before I lose it - before I die, which might happen, let's be honest, Steve, I could die, and I just want a family. Someone I can call mine, seein' as it's against the rules with _her._"

"She's not a thing, Buck, you can't call her yours."

Bucky just propped his butt on the wall, and sagged, hiding his face in his hands.

"I just wanted someone." he moaned, banging his head back on the wall with his eyes screwed shut. Steve would never admit, not even under torture, that he saw a tear track into his hair line. "Just someone to hold on to."

Steve knew what he was about to do was so terrifically wrong. But Bucky was so wound up, so upset. He didn't like the thought of sending him back to Darcy like that. His nobilities were complaining about Jessica, but his heart was thundering so loudly in his chest he could hardly hear it. So very calmly, he walked towards him, took his hands away from where they were clawing at his throat, like he could take back the words he'd said.

His best friend's eyes had always been so expressive - they were cut like glass, crystal pools of silver water Steve had always been able to see right through.

"I know it doesn't count for much right now, but Darcy didn't go to the doctor." he murmured. "You won the bet."

Bucky's body stayed completely still, rigid, mouth in that same unhappy line. Steve made to leave, but Bucky caught his hand and yanked him back.

There was a long moment where nothing was said, where words couldn't translate what was being felt. For Steve, he was not nervous, so much as guilty. He reminded himself that he'd been in a war, that kissing someone he loved was not wrong. Killing people was wrong. Kissing Bucky...

Not wrong. Right.

The first press of lips against his was very tender. Bucky's tape-wrapped hands framed his face, as if to hold him there, keep him grounded. Steve barely pouted his mouth, something rectified when a tongue swiped over his bottom lip.

He couldn't help himself- had to put hands on him, now. One palm landed on Bucky's damp chest, and Steve was glad he could feel his heart banging hard under his skin, because his was doing the same. His other hand went around to his back, smoothing over his tense shoulder, where he pulled him in, closer.

He tipped his head one way, Bucky mirrored it.

When Bucky pulled away to say: "_That's all I wanted_," Steve cut him off with another kiss, pulling his head back to his mouth. He grunted, exhaled hard through his nose, the hand once braced on Bucky's chest now dragging over his skin with blunt nails, around to his hip, where he pulled him in tighter.

There was something very satisfying about feeling how hard he was.

Bucky's teeth dug into his lip, hands slipping down to the back of his jeans, yanking him closer. He developed a steady gyrating rhythm with his hips, tongues meeting outside of mouths in their rush to keep tasting, never parting.

Steve kissed the side of his face and dropped his head down to Bucky's shoulder, hands likewise going to his rear. He grabbed two handfuls of ass and hauled him impossibly closer, actively picking him up to make the most of rutting against him, the friction increasing.

Bucky, meanwhile, was breathing hard over his neck, scraping teeth and lips and tongue along whatever he could reach that wasn't hidden behind Steve's collar. He tried to wedge his hands between them, get to his jeans, but Steve wouldn't let him, pinned him up against the wall with his feet off the floor.

His cock was actively throbbing in his jeans now, the denim painfully tight. It took him a second, after another long kiss, but he caught his breath and shook his head.

"No." he said, though it was through a thick swallow that he denied himself. "We can't. The girls-"

"Darcy won't care-"

"My girl-"

"Steve." he grabbed his face, pressed another kiss to his mouth. His legs opened, wrapped around his hips in reply. Steve's hands dug into him tighter, making him lick his upper lip, swallow a hard mouthful. "I just wanna _touch_ you."

"I know." he closed his eyes. "God, I know it." he kissed Bucky's mouth, slower, steadier, mouth tasting each individual lip in turn. He tasted the dip of his collarbone, salty with perspiration, and dug his teeth into the knots of muscle corded over his shoulders. Bucky's hands petted his hair, encouraging him with small jerks of his hips, twitches of his pecs. Then he very slowly released him, dragging down his body. He took a step away, turning his head back to the door.

"Steve." Bucky caught his belt, pulled him back in. Steve went, though kept his head turned.

"You said _a_ kiss."

"I want more."

"You can't have more. I've-... I've done enough damage today."

"We're fine. It's fine. C'mere. Come back." he pulled him up in his arms, wrapping them tight over his shoulders, fingers pressing hard into the back of his neck, his spine, bringing Steve's face back to his body. "Just- stay a minute, would ya? You're killing me, walkin' off like that."

Steve obliged, only slightly, wrapping him up in a hug. He tried not to think about how his skin had tasted, how he was now rock hard and very uncomfortable. He tried to focus on the things Bucky had said - that he'd wanted a family for so long. Steve had always known, but not to such an extent.

"You know I'm your best friend." he said, muffled, into Bucky's throat.

"I ain't never had a best friend that kissed me like that before." he chuckled briefly, gave him an extra squeeze. "Or picked me dead off the floor without so much as breaking a sweat, either. You make me feel like a dame."

"That a bad thing?"

"Not as bad as it sounds. I feel all... giddy." he leaned his head back on the wall, kept his arms loosely about Steve's person. Steve cupped his face in one hand, the other squeezing his wrist.

"Point is, you got me, Bucky. You've always had me."

"I want more of you."

"Buck..." he chastised lightly, drawing out the name. He ran his thumb over the brunette's lower lip, focusing on the way his mouth pursed to mouthe the tip. He had very vivid images in his head of that mouth on other parts of him, and took a deep breath in. "You gotta go say sorry to Darcy. She was more worried about you being upset than happy she wasn't pregnant. None of this biting at her, again, or else you _will_ deal with me."

"If you're threatenin' me with a_ tongue lashing_..." Bucky drawled. "That won't make me behave."

"Not any kind of tongue lashing you will like." Steve promised him. He pressed a quick kiss on his temple, turned away for a second to fix himself in a less conspicuous position. Bucky's hand smoothed over his shoulder, down the slope of his spine.

"At this point, I am willing to accept all of your tongue I can get." Bucky sauntered back into the apartment to find Darcy waiting on the couch, suspicious taser-sized bulge in her pocket.

"So." he said, and posed for her, flexing abs, chest, arms. "How was your day?"

"You'll be happy to know I'm not dying." Darcy told him sharply. "Doctor said I was fine. Gave me some pills."

"What doctor?" Bucky shot back, eyebrow cocking.

Steve averted his eyes to the ceiling, saying nothing as he made his way towards his room.

"The doctor Steve talked me into seeing today. Is that a problem?"

"You...saw a doctor..." he blinked at her. "Steve made you-"

"Steve _asked_ nicely." she snapped. "He make me! He didn't threaten to drag me kicking and screaming. And yes, I feel fine, thanks for asking."

"You don't look-"

"Shut up, Bucky!" and she made a hand grabby movement for her taser. Knowing she was good for the threat, his hands shot up in the air, innocent, but she didn't grab the taser, she just swung her hand into a purposeful looking fist and stormed into her room, slamming the door behind her.

"Two steps forward," he said to himself, small smile creeping on his mouth. "One step back."

* * *

All this chapter wanted to be was Steve and Bucky making out. I tried to pull them in, but honestly, didn't try that hard.

My bad for the late update.

x


	11. Chapter 11

Darcy thought maybe the closed door thing would ward both boys away. She was sinking into a steady depression about everything; letting it all play on her mind. Jane, no baby, potential threesome sexiness... She was lonely and _wanted_ to be alone, to bleed and ruin another pair of perfectly comfy undies while sobbing over Ned Stark's unfair demise.

There was a knock at the door that interrupted that, however.

"_What_?" she growled, from her hiding place under a mountain of covers. She really hoped the evidence from the sobbing fit she'd had ten minutes ago would have long since disappeared - that her eyes would at least be less puffy.

"It's me." Steve. Security blanket, come forth, ignore my ugly! "May I come in?"

She must've thought about it too long, because he added:

"I have a present..."

"If Bucky's with you, kick him away."

"He isn't. I promise."

She made a grumpy noise.

"Come in, then."

The bright burst of colour in the crack of the door made her gasp out loud. She pulled her covers away from her face and nearly kicked the laptop off the bed to climb over pillow mountain to fall off the mattress.

"I brought you flowers." Steve said, a little sheepishly. "I thought it was about time someone did."

"They're so pretty..." she touched one of the pink and yellow roses, rubbing the petal between her thumb and forefinger. "Oh wow. I think I'm swooning."

Steve beamed, and Darcy took the bunch from him, inhaling right in the centre. Through her slightly blocked nose, it made the attractive sound of a bath being drained, but she didn't particularly care. The card that almost took out her eye, though, that she cared about.

On the inside, a hand drawn teddy bear, hugging what appeared to be a squishy love heart. In Steve's neat, tiny print writing, it read:

_Feel better soon! _

_Yours, Steve_

She had to actively part the arrangement to peer up at him through the long stemmed roses, the extravagant foliage. He was clearly waiting for her to say something, kind of nervously poised to accept either negativity or positivity. He was like a once abused puppy, and she could feel her heart swelling.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"I really love you."

"Quit." he was grinning though. "I love you too, Darcy."

"Now come into my fortress." she swung open the door wider, sniffing loudly. "It's made out of feathers."

"Having been present in a fortress before, it sounds kind of..."

"Snuggly?"

"I was going to say safe." he mused. "And warm."

* * *

Bucky came in with Darcy's favourite bagels from that specific shop down town; he hollered out to Steve, but got no answer. When he found her door cracked open, he initially thought it was strange - but upon seeing the bunch of flowers on her bedside table and Steve with his arms around her, he thought different.

For a second he paused, watching Steve stare blindly at the screen of her laptop. He could hear Marylin Monroe singing a pretty song about diamonds, but he wa more concerned with Darcy, and how she was sound asleep with her head pillowed on one huge bicep. Steve had a hand eclipsing most of her abdomen, thumb rubbing in circles.

He had this soft smile about his face- the same one Bucky had seen him wear upon finishing a difficult drawing. He had, at first, associated it with pride, with satisfaction of completing his art, but now he realized it was _appreciative_.

"Bucky?" he murmured, and tried to detangle himself. "I'll go- it's just, she was upset, cryin', I couldn't just-"

"Don't move." he said firmly, turned on his heel and left.

He came back with the camera, snapped a quick photo - in it, Steve was blushing, staring at the screen over Darcy's shoulder with particular determination. Bucky would forever carry the image in his head of Steve's soft smile, however, the picture would do for when Darcy woke up.

"I'll go." Steve murmured, but Bucky shook his head.

"Stay. She's still gonna be pissed at me when she wakes up."

"Nothing you can't handle."

"I need you." he closed the laptop, set the bagels down on the table with the flowers, and kicked off his shoes, climbing onto the bed. "She been sleepin' long?"

"The doctor said lots of rest." Steve watched Bucky move a hand over her waist, over his arm. His muscle contracted like it was aware of how wrong it was to be touched like that.

"Doesn't really answer my question." he settled on her hip, moving in to kiss her brow, what he could reach of Steve's forearm beneath her head.

"Uh-...She's-...Been sleepin' for a while, I guess."

"Uh huh." his hand moved up to rest on the Captain's other arm. "Miss me?"

"Bucky, you're pushing buttons."

"Did you, or did you not, miss me?"

Steve buried his face in Darcy's hair.

"Mighta. Just a little."

"Sure." he was entertained by how bashful the big goofball was; there he lay, rippling with muscles and good to a fault, but he still thought so lowly of himself. Bucky didn't realize he had leaned over and fixed several messed up strands of Steve's hair until his wrist was seized in a kind, but firm grip.

"I _should_ go." Steve told him in a low voice. "But I think I just got used to this. Her. You. Us."

"If you got rid of that other floozy, this could be something you get to wake up to of a morning. Best of both worlds, old and new."

Steve dropped his wrist, put his hand back on Darcy's waist.

"It's not that easy, Buck."

"Yeah it is. You keep puttin' your tongue in my mouth, you keep buyin' another dame flowers, it's gonna get worse for you to try and rationalize what you're doin'. Get rid of her, and be with us."

Steve shook his head slightly, almost reluctantly denying him.

"She needs me."

"We need you. I've said it to Darcy a buncha times now. You smooth us out. We're like the same puzzle but we clash in some parts, you know? I can't keep us together by myself. The picture isn't whole, man." he cocked a brow, added a hippie-drawl to his voice.

"You've been watchin' too much T.V." Steve accused, with a growing smile. "It's fried your brains."

"Yeah, and you've been on ice for nearly seventy years, can't imagine that's done you any good. It's probably why it's taking you so long to agree with me."

Steve put his head back on the pillow, which effectively hid most of his expression behind Darcy's bed-hair mane. The arm beneath her head stretched, and curled around the back of Bucky's neck - his thumb found Bucky's fast pulse hammering away, and stroked it.

"You don't know it all." he murmured. "Jessica knows who I am, Bucky. I didn't want to tell you, cuz it isn't your business _to_ know- but when Jessica texted me, I knew something was wrong. Really, wrong, Buck. I could feel it in my bones."

Bucky was frowning at the dark tone. Steve had focused on the roof, fading into a memory, until the sergeant pressed a long kiss to the inside of his wrist.

"What happened, Steve?"

* * *

Steve had broken several laws to get to Jessica's upper east apartment, flying through traffic like he was the only bike on the road. He barely took the time to take off his helmet, though he managed to detangle the keys from his bike and stash it in the alley beside her building. He vaulted the stairs two and three at a time, yanking himself up by the handrail.

"Jessica? Jess? It's me, I'm here, don't do anything stupid, now!" he had started talking from all the way down the hall, praying to God she would hear him. He nearly slammed her door open, but refrained, knocking frantically. "Jess?"

He tried the handle to find it unlocked. The music was pounding, loud angry girl rock screaming from behind her bedroom walls, so loud it vibrated her framed degrees and pieces of art. The floor was covered in broken glass; her trophy case had been pulled from the wall. Tiny figurines made of porcelain were in bits across the roof - dust powder remained on the walls where someone had thrown them to breaking.

He ran toward the noise, knocked again, then shoved the door open to see her curled up on the floor in a pair of jeans and a long sleeved sweater. She had lines of mascara smeared over her cheeks, tracking into her hair, which was matted and in two messy clumps, like she'd scrunched it in her hands several times.

Her phone was beside the bottle of vodka, the glock was in her mouth.

"Jess, Jess, no, no-"

She pointed it at him for a second, then babbled something in cry-speak and put it back in her mouth, howling around the barrel.

"Let's talk. Let's just, talk? Jess, get the gun outta your mouth. Talk to me. Please. I'm here. I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere. Tale the gun away from your mouth, please."

"You-" she didn't exactly aim it at him, more in his general direction, on an angle he'd once heard Darcy exclaim was a 'kill shot', even if he told her the accuracy of a gun on that angle was ridiculously low. "-_Yoooou!_"

"Me. I'm right here. Put the gun down."

"No! NOOO!"

"Take it easy, Jess. C'mon, talk to me. How can I fix it? How can I help?"

She babbled, sobbing hard, holding her head with the gun up to her temple.

It was now or never, for the Captain, who launched at her. Then searing pain in his shoulder, hot, burning, too familiar-

* * *

"She _shot_ you?"

"It was an accident. I grabbed the gun and she fought me for it-"

"You're _Captain America_, for chrissake!"

"Keep your voice down." he glanced at Darcy, raising onto one elbow to do so. Bucky groaned, rolling his eyes, one hand dragging over his face. "She wasn't stronger but - I didn't want to hurt her. I tried to pull her finger away from the trigger and she held it tighter. It was an accident."

"This whole relationship was a fucking accident." Bucky growled at him. "What did she do when she saw you got shot? Lose her mind?"

"She threw the gun away."

"A loaded gun and she-?! Oh, Christ. I feel ill."

"She pressed her hands over where I was bleeding, apologized, tried to call the ambulance. It was a through and through - it was already healing by the time she managed to pick up her phone. I stopped her from calling, and she sort of... Figured it out."

"Like pulling her from under that building wasn't clue enough."

"I didn't have my uniform on then. No mask. Just me. She couldn't have known the mask... She liked me, because of me."

Bucky shook his head, letting out a stream of curse words that made Steve tell him off. He ignored it.

"She was gonna _kill_ herself over you?"

"I was gonna leave her."

"I can't fucking _believe_ her."

"She's- It's different, okay?... She _needs_ me. Everyone in her life has left her, done bad by her, she's a broken woman, Buck. Which is why_ this_ is so wrong, why she worries so much about Darcy."

"She should be worried about me." Bucky reminded him, and although Steve made a valiant attempt to contain his blush, it was an effort wasted. "You know what else I can't believe? You gave Darcy up for her."

"I'd only known Darcy a few hours, then. I didn't think a dame like her would ever look at a fella like me."

"Steve, you got _me_ lookin' at you. Did you forget you got arms bigger than her face or something?"

"It's not just about looks, Bucky." Steve told him quietly. "I knew I couldn't be with somebody who was only with me for my face... If I had never gotten the serum, I would've been alone for a long time."

"Not true." Bucky said in a firm, soft voice. He wasn't blinking, staring straight into Steve. "I always looked at you, you know. Just that I never said anything. You woulda walked out on me. I needed the family more than... Whatever. 'Sides, I was sure you were only inclined one way. You woulda run scared."

"I wouldn't ever walk out on you."

"You'd do it over Darcy. Said so yourself."

"I'd kick you outta my apartment, not my life. Geeze, drama queen."

"Whachit, Rogers." he thought about shoving him, but the way he was wrapped around Darcy would've woken her. He grinned at the picture they both made, the blonde and brunette, spooning. "I can't wait to tell Darcy you kissed me again, you know that?"

Steve hid his face in her hair again, breathing in deep.

"What...? What does Darcy say, when you tell her about kissing me?" came the low rumble.

"She gets kinda quiet. Sorta surprised, you know, but fascinated? And then she asks me: 'what was it like?' She reckons you'd be a soft kisser, all romantic. I tell her she's wrong."

"I ain't never kissed a dame the way I kiss you." was the instant reply. "I kiss you like that because I know you can take it."

"I'm not complaining. Darce likes it that way too."

"If I ever kissed Darcy... It'd be slow. I'd treat her like a lady. She doesn't get that enough. Such a nice girl, and the whole world is rough with her. I'd kiss those calluses away."

Bucky studied the way he gazed on her, the way he was so at ease, curled around her body with the entire length of his. He tipped his head to one side, thinking, for a long moment, then said:

"Kiss her."

"What?!" Steve gaped. "No! She's _asleep_!"

"You were gonna kiss her that morning you slept all over her."

"Was not!"

"Liar, liar. Don't get so worked up. I'm not saying with teeth, just a little one. On the face, or the shoulder." he nodded to where the off-the-shoulder cut of her sweater left her upper arm bare. Steve swallowed, but stared at Bucky.

"And you're what, just gonna watch?"

"Yeah. Unless you want another one from me."

"I can't. Once was enough."

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice..."

"There's no shame here." Steve grumbled. "I think that might be part of the problem."

"You think this is a problem."

"Yeah, I do."

"This, thing, we're not doing?"

"Did I stutter? This is wrong. I have a girl who needs me, and I'm in bed with- I'm in bed with you two and-"

"And you keep kissin' me, keep thinkin' about kissin' her."

"Look, Bucky-"

"Jesus, guys," Darcy sounded better, but her eyes were still tired as she cracked them open to glare accusingly at Bucky. "Sorry if I'm interrupting your conversation by trying to sleep, here."

"Sorry." Steve said. Bucky kissed her forehead.

"Like you're gonna complain about bein' woken up in a Darcy sandwich." he chuckled, and ran gentle fingers over her brow.

"Nom nom nom." she murmured, and he chuckled.

"How do you feel, baby doll?"

"Tummy hurts." she mumbled, and found her stomach was being kept warm by a significantly larger hand than her own. "Steve's still here...?"

"Yeah, I'm here." he said fondly.

"Good. Didn't want to wake up without you." one hand curled lazily around his fingers, while the other reached out and took hold of Bucky's shirt. "Or you. Not angry at you, 'kay?"

"Good. I'm not angry at you."

"Good."

"Fine." she smiled, opened her eyes again. "I smell bagels."

"You've got a nose like a goddamn blood hound." Bucky grinned, giving her a quick kiss on the temple. Steve, feeling it was time to go, tried to unwind one of his legs from Darcy's, but her knee clamped shut around his.

"Can we just... Not move? I just want The Darcy sandwich to last a little longer." she said. "I'm not in as much pain, with you here. You're like a giant heat bag."

"Not even for bagels?" Bucky cocked both brows.

"No." she said, and opened one arm for him to snuggle up to her front. His belt buckle was pressing against the back of Steve's hand, arm woven over Darcy's waist to tuck his fingers between the buttons of Steve's shirt. "That's better. With my fellas. I can die happy now."

"Please don't." Steve murmured. "You make the best pasta I ever eaten in my life."

"Yeah, we need you for food." Bucky said, dragging his nose over her cleavage.

"Also, I love you." Steve said, very seriously. It made Darcy break into a grin; how could it not?

"Speakin' of love," Bucky drawled. "While you were snoozin', here, nice 'n' pretty, 'n'_ quiet_-" Darcy shoved him in the chest, but yanked him back to her just as fast.

"I told Steve to kiss you. He reckons he'd treat you like a lady, all soft. Reckons I only get it rough because I can take it."

"Did he, now?" she peered up over her exposed shoulder at him, half through her lashes. "Were you really talking about kissing me, Steve?"

"It- was... Theoretical. I said if I ever... I didn't say _when_-...I-I can't kiss you, Darce, I promised Jess I wouldn't. I can't hurt her like that."

"This would be the same girl who busted a frame over your skull. And you can't hurt her."

"It was an _accident_."

"You seem to have a lot of accidents around her for someone with super genetics." Bucky drawled. Steve glared at him, while Darcy popped up from her lazy sprawl in the middle, suddenly tense all over, shooting Bucky a wide-eyed look before staring at Steve.

"There's more? What happened? Are you okay?" she rolled, studying his hair line, hands going over his throat, shoulders, spine.

"I'm fine-"

"He wouldn't have been without his serum, the way I hear it." Bucky enclosed the space she'd made by twisting, eyes twinkling over her shoulder as Steve flailed and tried to explain his side of the story.

"What did she do now? I'll karate chop her in the_ throat_-"

"Nothing, Darcy. I'm alright." he soothed.

"Snap that twig bitch over my knee-"

"Darcy-"

"I will taze her in her _genitals_!"

"Oooh." Bucky cringed for the girl, but was grinning wide.

Steve waited patiently until she ran out of interesting insults and threats, then smiled at her, hopefully to disarm the tirade before another could brew.

"I'm alright."

"I know you think that." she said flatly.

"Love it when you get all fired up." Bucky was endlessly amused.

"Would that be why you make a point to push every button I have?" she flipped her hair, smacking him in the face with it. He just brushed it aside, tangling his fingers through it.

"That'd be exactly why, gorgeous girl." he purred at her, and steered her face to plant a long kiss on her mouth. She made a noise of protest - it wasn't all that persistent. Steve cleared his throat, but Bucky wasn't finished, licking her lower lip, sucking it into his mouth until all the tension in her body had melted away.

"Bucky..." she said, tilting her head away. "Really? Forgetting we have company?"

"Nothin' he hasn't seen before." he scoffed.

"I'm pretty sure he hasn't seen it with clothes on."

"I haven't."Steve said, and put his head down on the pillow behind her head.

"Like this, Steve? This how I'm supposed to treat a lady?"

"No." he murmured. "Go slower. You're kissing her like she's your oxygen."

"Some'd think that's romantic."

"She isn't your oxygen. She's a woman. Please her."

"Oh my." Darcy murmured, heat filling her stomach. It had nothing to do with the fact that the boys were having some kind of stare down above her head, or the rather provocative words they were saying. It had more to do with how Bucky had shifted his pelvis to press against her backside, and how Steve had unconsciously pulled her in tighter to his body, lining up their hips.

"Show me." Bucky drawled, and in it, Darcy heard a dare, a challenge. "If you're so good. Prove it, hot shot. Let's see how it's done."

"Buck, don't ask me to -"

"I'm not asking you to_ kiss her,_ I'm asking you to _show me_." his eyes were like grey flames. Darcy would've liked to mention that, as the practice dummy in this scenario, she should have a say, but all she could think to say was:

_Oh god yes please._

"Slow. You should go slow. You have all the time in the world, when you kiss a girl." he knew his mouth was trembling, but he applied lips to her cheek anyway. Darcy was stiff as a board in his arms, swallowing repetitively, her face angled so he could reach more of it. "No tongue. No teeth. Time for that later. You gotta work up to it, steady. It isn't a race to see how hot you can get her, how fast you can get her there. You gotta- _taste_ her. Listen-" his hand squeezed hers, the arm under her head pulling her face closer to his, he pressed another shaky kiss on the hinge of her jaw. Her eyelashes fluttered - she cast a look at Bucky, who stared intently at what Steve was doing without blinking.

"Listen for the noises she makes. That breath there?" She'd gasped sharply as his mouth trailed to the sensitive skin behind her jaw bone. "That's what the aim is. That's what you want to hear. You wanna hear-"

She made a low humming noise, heavily lidded eyes staring back at him. He trailed his fingertips over her lower lip, down her chin, over her throat and collar bone.

"You have to pay attention to what she's saying when she isn't speaking. Where your hands go that she leans into-" his knuckles trailed over her chest, and her back bent like a bow to try and feel more. It was needy, desperate, and she was so turned on her knees were pressed together, shaking. "You gotta pay attention to _how_ she breathes. A little heavy when you barely just dig your fingers past her blouse, a little sharpy when you touch the small of her back - how she stops breathing, holds onto that breath like it's the last one she'll ever take in..."

Darcy was holding her breath as his fingers trembled over her hip, around the back of her thigh, to the crease of her knee. She made a pitiful whimpering noise when he cupped the back of her calf; it was an erogenous zone she didn't know she had.

"You feel her, where her hands go on you, how she holds onto you. She will tell you when she's ready, what she wants, _how_ she likes it. Kissing her should be what you're worried about. Not- gettin' anything when you're done, not concerned over how it's taking too long, or people might be watching, nothing. Kissing a girl like Darcy..." he swallowed, dropped his eyes to hers.

She was panting, her heart galloping, smashing tiny-heart fists against her ribcage, begging something more to happen.

"Kissing a girl like Darcy... Should be earned." he murmured.

Their lips had just brushed, but he pulled away, even if her pout came chasing after him, even if she whispered: "Steve..."

Steve tucked his head next to hers, mouth on her collar bone, a heavy sigh falling from his mouth. He wasn't gonna kiss her, not while he was still with Jessica.

Who slammed open the door and stared at them a moment later.


	12. Chapter 12

"What. The. _Fuck?!_" Jessica stood at the door, both hands holding onto the strap of her mammoth sized over night bag. She looked very small, with it in comparison, but the weight of her rage was very tall, and very real.

"Jess-!" Steve shot up from the bed, almost unrolling Darcy off the other side. Bucky caught her, both arms wrapped around her waist to stop her from popping up and getting involved too. "-It- it isn't- I wouldn't- I didn't-"

"Oh, don't even _try_!" she spat through her teeth. "How dare you do this to me? How _dare _you? Do you have any idea _who I am_?"

"Jess, I didn't do anything- I know it looks bad-"

"Do you have any idea what I will _do to you_ now? Do you know what you've_ pushed me _into? Do you_ know _what I am _capable_ of?" bright blue eyes flicked over where Darcy was being held down atop of Bucky. "You couldn't even just have _her_. You had to have _both_. You're sick, you're so above and beyond sick!"

Steve followed her out at a rapid pace, trying to explain. Something shattered and Darcy nearly broke the super solider's grip on her to go to his aid, screaming for him to let her go, for Steve to come back. She was actively punching him when he wouldn't release her - his one bionic hand caught both her wrists and held on. He lifted his chin away from her noise until her couldn't hear Steve anymore, then let her go, rolling off him, heaving from having screamed so loudly.

"Darcy-" he picked her straight off the floor like she weighed nothing, letting her hang over his shoulder. "Just hang on, jeeze. I can't hear a damn thing, doll."

Punching his butt, while entertaining and satisfying on so many levels, did absolutely nothing to him. She sagged, miserable, pushing up on his lower back to reset her centre of gravity.

"What's happening?" she demanded. "Has she hurt him?"

"No. She ain't sayin' anything. He's tellin' her that he and her... He's breakin' up with her."

"Good!"

"She's... not takin' it very well."

"What the hell does that mean-?!"

The sounds of breaking glass pretty much answered that question before Bucky could. He sighed and let her onto the floor, releasing her already bellowing how she had better run before she got there with her taser, which she snatched up from the dressing table on the way out.

She skidded to a halt upon reaching the kitchen. The only vase they had in the house lay in sparkly shards on the floor, along with a mug that Darcy had given Steve as a gag gift. It had his shield insignia on it, and the slogan: FOR AMERICA! printed in red on the bottom of the rim, so every time he drank from it, she giggled.

"Steve." she said weakly, chest heaving. He didn't turn, he just hid his face behind his palms. Darcy looked around for Jessica, but she was gone, the front door left open. "I'm sorry, Steve."

He said nothing, massive shoulders curling inward.

"S-Steve... Steve?" She took little steps toward him, and realized absently that her foot was stinging. Her empty hand lifted, touched his bicep carefully. "Steve- hey. Hey..."

"I-" he stopped, patted her hand, and turned away from her. "I'll clean this up."

"Holy shit." Bucky scowled, bending at the waist to study what Steve couldn't hide of his face. "The fuck did she do to you?"

Darcy ducked under his arm, stared straight up into his face. He was perfectly collected, the very image of calm, as he took both her arms in his hands and said:

"It will heal. Just stay here, she isn't worth your trouble." Blood from the gash on his cheek bubbled over his mouth as he spoke. Timidly, her bottom lip trembling, Darcy reached up and plucked a shard of vase from the tear of his jaw. He flinched - one eye was glued shut with blood. "I heal fast, Darcy. It doesn't hurt."

"Really." she breathed, nodding numbly. "Oh, that's good. That makes it okay."

"I know it's not okay. Listen to me. It's not happening any more, alright?" he rubbed her arms, one of his hands lingering low on the one holding the weapon. The only thing she knew was blood dripped out of his face, onto a perfectly nice plaid shirt. "I'm okay."

"I'm not." she whispered.

Bucky walked through the glass to put his arms around her waist from behind. He tucked his face next to her throat and sighed slightly, grey eyes watching Steve, who continued to try and soothe her, try and gently coax the taser away from her.

"Good news is, it's over between them." he drawled. "She ain't gonna threaten to take a gun to her mouth any more, in a temper like that."

"She what?"

"She was drunk. I won't go back." his thumbs swiped her face. "I'm here, okay?"

"Not okay." she said again, and dropped the taser. "This is _not, _okay!" she pressed her face against his chest, hugging him tightly. It effectively put Steve and Bucky's faces only inches apart - Bucky inspected the rips in his skin, the steadily healing cuts that singed together before his eyes. He pressed a very gentle kiss on the unharmed side of his face, and popped his cheek down on the top of Darcy's head.

"You go and clean that up, bring back the medi-kit." he murmured, hands unwinding Darcy's arms from Steve's torso. "We'll clean up this mess here."

Steve felt like he should protest, but it wasn't a suggestion, as much as a direction. He nodded, likewise kissing Darcy on the forehead, before gently stepping away from her embrace and carefully treading over the broken glass.

"C'mere, Darce." Bucky turned her and picked her up off the floor, carrying her over to the bench. "Did you know you cut up your foot, just now?" he bent, lifting the bloodied extremity up into his hands.

"I want to hurt her." she told him shakily. "Really hurt her. I'm so mad."

"I know, puddin'. Me too." he kissed the inside of her ankle. "So here's what's gonna happen. I'm gonna get all the glass outta you and wrap your foot up. You're gonna get in a taxi and go to Stark, and get him to dig up everything you can on that little_ bitch._ Get everything. Address, phone number, police and medical records, everything helps. Then bring it back to me, and I'll handle it from there."

"Is this... Recon?"

"You got it, baby doll. Say it back to me."

Numbly, she did, while he squeezed out bits and pieces of glass from the sole of her foot.

"That's my girl." he murmured, looking up at her from his position on the floor. Steve rounded the corner to see her glazed eyes focused only on Bucky, and felt the need to turn around and walk away, let them have a moment alone. She saw him, however, and her stern expression melted - she reached out to him with both hands, like a child, and he went to her, handing the first aid kit to Bucky.

Most of his face was already fine - the wounds hadn't been deep, they just bled a lot. What had been obstructing the healing process he'd plucked out with his fingertips, so it could continue to mend. He held the back of Darcy's head to his shoulder and sank as her tears burned through his shirt.

"I hate her. I hate her _so much_. I have never hated someone so much in my entire life." she had great big handfuls of his shirt in her hands, kept on repeating the mantra, just in case he didn't understand how she was feeling. "I hate her, Steve, and I want to hurt her for hurting you."

"She's already damaged, Darce." he said softly. "She doesn't know any better."

"She does _so_!" she shoved herself back to look into his eyes, but kept her grip on him. "Stop_ defending_ her!"

"If you knew what I knew, you'd think the same thing." he reasoned, but she glared and he realized that no matter what the backstory, she would hate Jessica out of spite. "Don't hate, Darcy. It's not good for you."

"You can't tell me what's good for me, when you went back to the_ skank_ that busted a photo frame over your face!"

"I can tell you what's good for you." he told her, matter-of-fact. "I love you, and I want what's best for you. Don't hate her on account of me. Hating somebody will only exhaust you, turn you sour. Just forget about her. Not for me, for you. Please?"

She didn't reply. Her vocal chords physically wouldn't let her. She just put her face back down on his shirt and scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve, sniffing loudly. He put his hand on her shoulder, rubbing, watching over her head as Bucky cleaned her foot. She made a tiny: "Ow," noise upon the first swipe of antibacterial cleaner, her whole body jolting.

Bucky made his apologies, kissing the top of her foot, and Steve rubbed her spine.

When it was clean, Bucky stood, turning Steve's face towards him with a bent forefinger under his chin. he did a quick assessment of the thick pink lines now blending into his face, but wiped a length of pad over his chin and cheek to sop up most of the blood that remained. He bent and kissed Darcy's bare shoulder, lifting her off the counter, out of Steve's arms.

"But I want to hug Steve-"

"Hug Steve later. Go shower. You have something to do."

"That'll make me feel better." she mumbled, and glanced over the side of his arm. "You're not wearing any shoes!"

"Spy, dumbass. How many times do we have to go over this? I don't just charge through the minefield, I negotiate it."

"Whatever." she held onto his shoulders as he let her down in her room.

"He'll be okay, Lewis. I'll fix him up, too."

"With kisses?"

"Probably." he gave her a cheeky grin, bent to plant a smooch on the side of her face. "You're gonna miss out again."

* * *

I'm sorry for the short chapter!  
I'm having a bit of trouble writing this ATM

I don't know what's happening D:

Aude

xx


	13. Chapter 13

She thought that the effort of leaving the house with her crippled limb and going on 'recon' so Bucky could finally make good on the fact that he was a spy might make up for the shitty morning. She had full intentions of a giant cup of coffee with a cup cake bigger than her face, maybe she might get her nails done.

That, however, was not going to happen.

The same second she stepped out of the taxi upon reaching the tower, she was swarmed. Paparazzi kept blocking her path - hurting her foot - screaming questions at her that she couldn't quite hear, it was all just noise. Urgent, panicky, blurry noise. Eventually, she was rescued -or rather, someone interrupted her about to brandish her taser at the closest pap - by none other than Tony Stark, who swooped in with the grace of someone well used to having a horde of people want to take his photo.

He put an arm around her shoulders and did a lot of snarky talking, which was in Darcy's job description to keep him from doing but she allowed because he was getting them out.

The burst of silence inside the tower was both unnerving and soothing. She took a moment to lean more heavily on Tony who casually reminded her that he "Had a Pepper,' but she ignored the quip and turned on him.

"What the hell was that about?" she demanded. "I swear, they're getting dumber and dumber!"

"So you aren't here for that?"

"No, I'm here to utilise your amazing abilities with a computer." she blinked at him. "Wait. Here for what?"

He just cocked a half grin.

"Welcome to the club, Lewis. I gotta say, it was getting kinda lonely in here. But new members, team players, together we could rule the world."

"What are you talking about?" she winced and hobbled to the elevator he was striding towards.

"You and Cap." he wiggled his eyebrows. "You and Barnes. Barnes and Cap."

"What?" she knew she was blushing.

"Oh damn. You're about to have a bad day." he glanced at her foot. "Really bad day, kid. Brace yourself."

Having worked alongside Pepper Potts, she was so used to thinking that she would not want to be on the otherside of her dissaproving looks. Darcy had been brought up on them, and while she was hardened to the ones from her mother, getting them from her boss made her feel like wilting.

"Have you heard what Ms. Nash has said?" was the first calm thing Pepper said.

"Uh, no. Who the hell is Ms. Nash?"

"Jessica Nash. Do you know her?"

"Yeah I know her. She's Steve's ex." Pepper shot a glare at Tony as he chortled. "What? Guys, what's going on? Can somebody just please-"

Jane burst through the door, Thor hot on her heels. He was frowning hard, something no one had seen him do, looking like he would likely rip the door off it's hinges. Jane was windswept but otherwise full of healthy colour and glow. She paced directly to Darcy and wrapped her up in a bony armed hug.

"We don't care." she said flatly. "Thor and I- we are still on your side."

"Side of what? Jane, no one's telling me anything! I'm kinda used to that but - the paparazzi, outside, and Pepper's giving me The Look-"

"I don't have a look."

"Yes you do." Tony mused.

"She hasn't heard?" Jane turned the brightness of her eyes onto Pepper. "You haven't told her?"

"I was getting to that. I wanted to see how much was true before she knew."

"That's not fair, Pepper." Jane stood to her full height, which was echoed in Thor's stance. "Darcy is a good person and she is our friend. She is not some- some-... SHIELD, agent, that would lie!"

"Hey! Some of us might take offence to that." and Clint casually fell out of the air vent behind the desk. "Sorry. Wanted to hear if it were true or not. For god's sakes, the kid's terrified, someone tell her what's going on."

"I'm not a kid." she grumped at him, but took Jane's hand. "Tell me, what the hell is this about?"

"Honey." Jane squeezed her fingers. "Just remember that we love you no matter what, okay?"

"You will always," Thor rumbled. "Be our comrade. I will forever count you one of mine, and defend you 'till my dying breath."

"Thanks," she squeaked, now very stressed. "But why are you defending me? What from?"

Tony replied by flicking a holographic screen up onto the noted that behind it, Pepper's eyes did not leave her face, and while she could see Clint with his his hip cocked on the side of the wall, she could feel his eyes too, every time she looked away from him.

The face that popped up on the screen was Jessica's.

"Ugh, that bitch. What the hell-?"

But the video played, and Jessica started to speak.

"I was in a serious relationship with Captain America for six months." she said, looking utterly miserable. "I thought that maybe he would be the one. He was so perfect. Kind and sweet. But there was something, about him, and his roommates."

She held up a photo of the three of them, Darcy, Steve, Bucky. Steve was in the middle with arms around them both - grinning wide into the camera. It remained the only photo they had with nice smiling faces... But Darcy couldn't look on it with love, any more. Next to her hideous mug, she felt her belly turn.

"They're in this weird threesome thing together." she announced. "And I told him, I said: 'While you're in a relationship with me, you can't do this behind my back'. But I knew he was still doing it - they all live together and whenever I stayed the night he tossed and turned in his bed like he couldn't sleep. I was going to break up with him and he told me that he could change. That he was going to move out with me." he hand settled on her stomach.

"And I thought he would, now that I'm with his child."

Darcy's mouth popped open.

"Liar!" she accused, but Jessica wasn't yet finished.

"So I will not go back, not again. It isn't worth the hurt, not for me, or my baby. And to Steve Rogers, I wish you the best..." she became lost in the uproar of Captain America's name. She held up the photo of them up again, posed for a few more woe-is-me photos, then turned her eyes down and walked to a limo.

The screen closed, and Darcy inhaled.

"That fucking liar." was what she said first. "She can't be pregnant, she and Steve didn't have sex!" she got to her feet and started to pace.

"And the threesome?" Pepper rose a brow. "Is that a lie, too?"

"Not that it's any of your fucking business, but yes, that's a lie too." she snapped, turning on her heel. "And like it's a problem, even if we-"

"It is a problem." Pepper informed her. "It's Steve's problem. Bucky hasn't had his name revealed. He is covert. Steve is the face of the Avengers - he's America's sweetheart."

"And so what?"

"So, it isn't a traditional relationship. It'd be less damage if he were gay, Darcy. You don't understand. People aren't going to accept this and move on - people are going to think, not only is he greedy, but he's leaving behind a nice girl and a baby behind to satisfy himself with you-"

"Watch how you speak," was Thor's resonating growl. "To my friend."

"I'm telling her how it is, Thor." Pepper was totally unphased, even if Darcy had flinched. "I don't care what she does or how she does it. I care about maintaining Steve's rapport for Steve. He's not going to be taken seriously - people are going to have opinions on this that will dictate the rest of his life. Darcy, you'll fade into oblivion, you're almost out of it scott-free-"

"Who is this, Scott?" Thor mumbled.

"No one, honey." Jane returned, reaching back to take his hand.

"- But this was a personal attack on Steve and she did it right. It was bad luck that you showed up looking like the girl in the photo. She outed you as someone who worked in PR, so I fired you this morning. You'll be paid regularly, of course, to consult Mr. Stark on his therapy."

"You're my fake shrink." Tony supplied for her. "I wouldn't sweat it, but I'm having these dreams about drinking orphan's tears-"

"Not the time, Tony." Pepper said, and continued like a steam roller. "We have people moving you out of your apartment as we speak. You'll have residency in the Tower as long as you need it-"

"Wait, wait!" Darcy was angry, but there was fear, very real, very cold, in her stomach. "What about Steve and Bucky?"

"They'll also be moved out, but Bucky to Malibu, Steve to-"

"No!" she stomped her foot. "Stop. Just stop."

She ignored everyone, digging her phone out of her pocket. The dial tone had never gone on so painfully long before, never had she prayed to whatever god was closest that Bucky Barnes would answer his phone.

"Bucky?"

"Geeze, Darce, the hell did you do?"

"Bucky, get Steve undercover and get your asses to Stark tower. Make like a spy."

"I asked you for recon and people come here movin' our stuff-?"

"Bucky." the desperate note in her voice made him quiet. "Hell's broken loose, okay? Don't let them take Steve. Get here quick." she swallowed a heavy mouthful, with her back turned on the rest of the room.

"I'm on it, baby doll. Don't you worry about a thing." he took a pause. "You're gonna tell me what the hell's goin' on, aren't you...?"

It was with a tired note in his voice he asked. She knew he was expecting to be kept out of the loop, knew that he expected her to remain secretive, to ask him to do things without knowing why. The drawl he had wasn't his own - it was a slurr on his words, like part of his brain had shut down to protect itself. Darcy knew he expected different, but she hadn't started lying to him, and wouldn't now.

"When you get here, I will. If I told you now you'd go do your assassin thing and cut a bitch, and I need you." the office was painfully quiet behind her. "We're both gonna need you."

"We're comin' now." he said to her, voice pitched low. "Love you, puddin'."

She put her hand over her eyes, but nothing hid the tremor in her voice when she replied:

"I love you too."

Jane's arms went around her waist from behind - Darcy turned to breathe in that comforting stock standard clean smell Jane always had. Thor put a very large, very warm hand on her shoulder. Pepper started to say something but Jane cut her off with a sharp: "No. You've done enough." and the astrophysicist lead her away.

* * *

They barely had time to get into Jane's section of the tower and offer a coffee, when both Bucky and Steve came in through the door, Clint behind them.

Darcy could feel her expression falling as she looked upon Bucky's white knuckle tight fists and Steve's thin-lipped mouth. Both were tense across the shoulders, inflated in rage and in shame.

"You told them?" she asked in a breathless kind of whisper.

"So you didn't have to." Clint nodded. "Pepper is gonna know you're here soon, so expect her in a minute. JARVIS is good for a few things. Surveillance is one of them."

"Thank you, sir." the AI intoned. He was ignored.

"Thanks, Clint." she said.

"It's cool. You'd do the same for me."  
Clint and Darcy had a bromance that had started out as flirting but progressed into comradery in days. But like Steve, SHIELD had tried to sneak some things past him, and Darcy had told him flat out as soon as she heard. It had effectively saved about fourteen lives indirectly, not that she was counting.

Bucky looked like he would likely kill someone, and Steve looked sick, with red rings forming around his eyes.

She couldn't speak. So she ran to them instead, one arm around them both. Steve caught the hug and returned it fiercely, Bucky stiffened all over, one hand bracing her shoulder. She was whispering that they were going to figure it out, that everything would be okay, but it was just more noise she didn't really make sense of.

"She can't be pregnant, anyway." she took a shaky breath in. "Because you never slept with her, right?"

Steve made a pitiful noise, arms tightening around her.

"Oh." was Darcy's reply. "Okay. So you did."

She leaned back to disengage but Steve didn't release her. Bucky put his cheek on her shoulder, turning so he had an arm around Steve too. The Man With a Plan hid his face behind the shield of their collective skulls - kept warm from their breathing, his eyes shut tight.

"Steve, you know she's wrong. You know what she's done to you. She's the one who is in the wrong, not you. She hit you, she hurt you. She's the bad guy."

"No proof." Bucky murmured. "We've got no proof."

"Neither does she!" Darcy squeezed Steve's waist tighter. "She can't prove we are, or aren't in any relationship-"

"I don't care about that." was Steve's whisper. "If it's my... If she is pr-egnant..."

"I know how you feel," Bucky murmured, and Darcy cringed. If what Steve was feeling was anything like what Bucky felt when she was late, she felt like the world's biggest asshole for writing his feelings off like she did. Then again, she wasn't pregnant, and neither was Jess, she was almost completely sure.

"Steve, trust me, this is my job. I can make this go away." Darcy told him, in a much stronger voice than she felt. "She can't hurt you anymore, I won't let her. I'll figure it out. She wants it public, she can have it public. I deal with Tony Stark. This is gonna be easy, you hear me...?"

He didn't answer, just snuggled his face closer to her throat. Bucky pressed short kiss on his cheekbone.

"And if she don't, I will." he promised darkly. His nose traced the contour of Steve's jaw, something the super solider actively leaned into.  
"Don't say that." he murmured. "She's a nice girl, she's just... a little damaged."

"Nice? Girls like her, the ones who are abusive, who scream and throw things and pretend they will commit suicide to keep you around? That's not nice! Let me tell you, the next step is pregnancy. They can't help themselves. They are literally a breed of creature who just want their way. She's a compulsive liar, Steve, she isn't pregnant, okay?"

"But what if she is?"

"She isn't." Darcy held his face in one hand, while the other found Bucky's fingers on Steve's shoulder and curled around them. "I promise. Do you trust me?"

"I do." he opened his eyes. "I trust you."

"She's not pregnant." she told him firmly. "Trust in that."

* * *

Okay, my keypad is playing up, excuse the very bad spelling mistakes in this chapter.

Much love

Aude

x


	14. Chapter 14

5 Days Later

* * *

Darcy had been good at the PR gig. Then again, she had been good at all her jobs- she made a point to be good at them all. She didn't excel, she just did better than expected, and that made her feel better about her life choices, because as exciting as political science was, it just didn't pay the bills.

Pepper had come in like a storm, brewing with energy. Clint had disappeared, though Jane refused to, standing firmly beside Darcy until the negotiations began. They made it quite clear they were not to be separated; Bucky and Darcy, that was, were very vocal about sharing a room, and that Steve were in spitting distance.

Steve said nothing. He, at first, just hung his head and nodded to everything Pepper suggested.

"This isn't against you," she said gently. "This is to protect you. As your friend, I don't care what you get up to, as long as you are happy. But to protect Steve, to start damage control to keep you happy, segregation is the best answer."

"Because why, the reporters are going to come into Stark Tower and check out the sleeping arrangements?" Darcy scoffed. "Bucky's my man. And any where Steve goes, we go."

Pepper continued to give them The Look, but flanked by her boys, Darcy felt indestructible.

"If that's what you want." Pepper nodded, then proceeded to set up Steve's public address.

That had gone well. The public received him like an old friend, applauding him as he went into the conference room. He was nervous but spoke with calm and decorum, every inch Captain America. He confirmed he had been in a relationship with Jessica - that she had ended their relationship twice in a fit of temper. He couldn't confirm if she was pregnant because he honestly had no idea, a fact that seemed to resonate in the community.

Meanwhile, Jessica had become infamous. She had a million twitter followers and a Facebook page dedicated to supporting her. She often tweeted melancholy updates, lyrics from breakup songs, twice from Madonna's Papa Don't Preech.

So while Steve had said his piece and people knew what he was saying to be true and correct, her constant online sulking had made some people less sure of his innocence, and some people totally certain of hers.

There was no disasters within the week, if you chose to disregard Jane's very intense moods. Thor didn't think it was odd, citing that all the women he'd ever gotten pregnant had all been the of the same disposition.

(He slept on the couch in Darcy and Bucky's apartment for two nights.)

* * *

Bucky and Darcy had been sleeping together, but not..._sleeping_, together. At firs it was because Darcy was bleeding from a crucial part of the love making business, but even when she wasn't, they fought too much to achieve the right mood.

They went to bed angry and woke up interlinked. There was only one day that progressed to making out but it was lazy, half hearted, and interrupted by a knock on their door.

Darcy practically ran to answer it, desperate for an excuse to leave the bed. Bucky didn't so much as ask her who it was- he retreated to a shower before she'd got to the door, in much the same frame of mind.

Steve looked like crap. It was the best crap-looking person Darcy had ever seen in her life, however. The super solider serum negated any days where Steve should have looked like shit. He was hunched at the shoulders and there was a crease between his brows from a perpetual frown. His hands were shoved deep into his pockets, in fists behind the darkwashed denim.

He took one look at her red, wet mouth and sighed.

"I'll come back later." he muttered.

"Please stay. I miss you." she took his hand and hoped he wouldn't pull away. "We both miss you."

He stopped walking, turned only to look over his shoulder at her.

"Looks like you're getting on just fine without me." he said it with no implied malice, just tired acceptance.

"We aren't." she told him. "Steve, please come in."

He turned the rest of his body towards her, angling almost head on. He nodded, and she lead him by the hand, taking him through to the lounge.

"Bucky's in the shower." she told him. "But apparently that won't stop him from hearing every damn word I say."

She heard the distinct: "It won't!" from behind the bathroom door.

"That's fine. I didn't... I didn't exactly come to talk." he shifted in the seat, hand curling tighter on hers. "I couldn't be _alone,_ any more."

"It still messes with your head?"

He nodded, swallowing hard. He was wearing Disney Prince eyes, all big and watery and innocent. She could feel herself swooning, actually feel her knees giving out underneath her.

"Oh, baby. Come here."

Darcy pushed between his knees, holding his head to her chest. His forefinger tapped out the rhythm of her heat beat against his forearm - he had both arms around her hips, eyes closed. She dug her thumbs into his shoulders, trying to ease some of the tension in him. Her cheek was on his head, smelling his apple-shampoo.

"Why didn't you come sooner?" she whispered.

"Didn't think I was wanted."

"That's about the dumbest thing you ever said, Rogers." Bucky drawled, rubbing a towel over his hair. The other was trapped only precariously around his pelvis, threatening to fall. The v of his hips was pronounced, the trail of dark hair from his navel still wet. "You always got your face on her boobs. I thought you were an ass man."

"You're an ass, man." Steve muttered, still with closed eyes. "I just like hearing her heart beat."

Bucky rolled his eyes, making a disgusted noise, but Darcy loved it when Steve spoke like a well written romance novel and wasn't at all put off by it. Quite the opposite, actually. Her arms tightened on him, and without much thinking about it, she kissed his forehead, her nose lingering at his hairline.

He relaxed in totality, sighing a long held breath that rolled over her skin, making goosebumps explode over her like she'd stuck her feet in ice. Her heart beat spiked as she pressed another kiss to his temple, eyeing Bucky from under her lashes.

He licked his lips, and nodded her along.

One hand still massaged his shoulder, but the other lifted and drew a gentle line up his throat, so his head tipped back. She paused with her fingertip under his chin, holding him in place.

"Steve." she said, very pleasantly. "If you wanna leave, you should leave now. Other wise I'm going to kiss you. And where ever that goes, it's going there, and it's happening _now_. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

His eyelids opened, pupils blown wide. He swallowed, glanced at Bucky, who remained watching, towel lazily rubbing over the same patch on his chest, then looked up to her again.

"Yes ma'am." he murmured, and closed his eyes again.

Before she lost her nerve, she planted one on him. It wasn't like how she would've kissed Bucky, that was for sure. Her tongue traced the shape of his mouth and his hands framed her hips with a careful, gentle squeeze, more a non-verbal encouragement than copping a feel. She often thought that her hips were her worst part, but having him hold her there, it made her feel _needed_ and _appreciated_, less so than self conscious.

The hand at his shoulder crept beneath the collar of his shirt, nails dragging slowly, carefully, over his back, until she was on tip toe to reach further down. He smoothed his hands over her backside and pulled her closer by the thighs, pulling her up against his chest. She opened her knees, settling one leg either side of his right thigh, prompting him to lower her down onto his lap.

On that angle, much more equal, the kiss deepened he sucked on her tongue the next time she tried to coax his mouth open, and she moaned a little into the quiet room. His hands sculpted her figure on the way up, over clothes, over hips she hated and the waist she emphasised at all times. He paused for a minute on her ribcage, feeling how she was breathing, then his thumbs smoothed over the underside of her breasts, and she made a noise like mewling.

"Mind if I join?"

She hummed low in her throat, while Steve broke apart from the kiss and looked over to him. He swallowed, panting slightly, looking concerned.

"We'll go slow." Darcy told him softly, kissing his brow. "Not too much, too soon. Slow."

He didn't agree, but he didn't disagree either. He just pressed a kiss to her throat so that Bucky could come over and steal-borrow her mouth.

He stood at her side, his towel hanging dangerously low, thanks to the fact he was rocking a semi boner. He bit her lip instead of kissed it, and demanded entrance into her mouth instead of denying it. Darcy's nails dug into Steve as his mouth found nipples through her shirt, where he sucked on them until both peaked.

She didn't realise she was gyrating until Steve's hands settled on her hips, thumbs angled on her inner thigh. He did nothing but hold her still and rub small circles into the thin material of her pajamas, hands huge and warm, while Bucky's paws eclipsed both her breasts, finding the wet patches and pinching each nipple so that her body rocked up against Steve's.

She broke Bucky's kiss, desperate for air, her head tipping to the side so she could pant and taste as much of Steve's exposed throat as she could. There was a pause of action between the two, even on her, and she lifted her head to figure out why.

"Steve?" she murmured, putting her forehead against his temple.

"I just..." he swallowed, put his lips around her ear, keeping direct eye contact with Bucky. He tugged on her ear lobe, slightly, then released it, his voice low. "I don't know what to do."

"Kiss him." she suggested, glancing over her shoulder at the sergeant. His hands tightened on her breasts, and he licked his mouth again. "Close your eyes."

He did as he was told, swallowing loudly. His hands flexed at her hips, then moved up to her waist. She ran light fingers over his skull, down the back of his neck and throat, arching a brow at Bucky, who watched her other hand part the front of his shirt and venture over his chest.

"Make an effort, Barnes." she said, and ran her tongue over the shell of Steve's ear. "Kiss our dear Captain, won't you?"

"Yes ma'am." he put one hand on Steve's jaw and planted it on him. For a second, it was so strong Steve actually leaned back on the couch, back braced by the cushions, making a gruff noise from under the assaulting tongue and teeth. Darcy sucked a mark on his neck and his hands went from placid to claws on her waist. He sat back up with a vengeance, one hand still bracing her, the other to Bucky's towel.

He grabbed the knot keeping him decent and tugged it forward, throwing him off balance. Darcy pulled back to watch Steve manipulate Bucky down on the other thigh, even if he at first, struggled to remain standing. She and he were comfortably seated - the expanse of Steve's legs were quite impressive.

Darcy kept one hand on Steve's back in a fist, the other sneaking over Bucky's thigh to the part in the towel. Her fingers disappeared under it, before catching him hot and heavy in her hand, giving an experimental squeeze.

He grunted, tossed his head back to give her a heated glare.

"You said _slow_." he accused.

"Since when do you play by the rules?" she shot back.

"If you two can't behave," Steve said from the vicinity of Darcy cleavage. "There will be consequences."

"Sounds potentially sexy." Bucky drawled, prompting Darcy to encircle his head with her forefinger and thumb, and start to jerk rapidly.

He lost his breath for a moment, cursing in a language she didn't understand, teeth grinding. He went to grab her hand but Steve caught his and twisted it up between his shoulder blades, putting them chest to chest. He could feel Bucky's heart beat like a trapped bird, while his own beat a slower, heavier rhythm beside it.

"_Behave_." Darcy reminded him, leaning over to bite his pec.

He flinched and she let him go, dragged her hand back down to the base of his throbbing cock. She stroked him more fully, up and down, while Steve bent his head to her collar bone and mouthed at the indent it made.

"Yes _ma'am_." Bucky growled, and pulled her head toward him for a kiss.

Teeth sunk into her lip just a little too hard, making her flinch and gasp loudly. Steve looked up from her chest to see her scowling, and his grip on Bucky's arm tightened a fraction. Bucky kissed her lip in apology, looking mischievous, a grin half cocked on his mouth.

"What have I told you," Steve said under his breath. "About kissing Darcy?"

"Has to be earned," Darcy replied, tipping her head away from Bucky.

"You're banned." Steve told him, and brought his hand up Darcy's side, cupping the back of her neck. "Until you earn it."

"And how exactly do I do that?" he prompted, watching the slow drag of Steve's lips over her jaw line, the little sigh she let go.

"I don't know." Steve mused. "Darcy, what does Bucky have to do for you?"

She opened one sleepy eyelid, brow slanted.

"What makes you think I want Bucky to kiss me ever again?" she peppered a light string of butterfly kisses on Steve's cheekbones, nose, forehead. He leaned into each one, removing his hand from Bucky's wrist to catch one breast in his hand. "You're right, by the way... Steve's a better kisser than you."

"Like _hell_ he is."

"Darcy, tell him." Steve prompted, chin resting on her collarbone, arm around the entirety of her waist. "What's a fella gotta do, to earn a kiss from a dame as pretty as you?"

Darcy said:

"Rub one out so I can keep kissing Steve."

* * *

I just lost the knack of writing sex scenes -.-

Hope you enjoyed!

This is only a teaser - the rest of this scene is coming.

(COMING LOL)

((Mentally fifteen))


	15. Chapter 15

**SMUT.**

* * *

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

His mouth was curling into a smirk, one eyebrow progressively raising on his forehead.

"Rub one out...?" Steve thought a minute. When it occurred to him what it meant, he jolted, making Darcy flinch in physical reply. "Oh."

"I'll do it." Bucky said it like a threat, plucking the knot at his waist.

"Then do it." Darcy felt her voice was very even, very steady, considering Bucky had just abandoned the towel to become fully naked and Steve's hands were digging into her hips in response to said nudity. He was staring determinedly forward, breathing hard, while Bucky took his cock in hand and started to stroke lazily.

"I thought _you _were gonna give _me _a show." Bucky said mildly. "Not the other way around."

"You'll get your show when we are good and ready." Darcy informed him, steering Steve's face up, pressing a delicate kiss onto his mouth. She shifted, lifting one leg to put it astride the Captain's unoccupied hip, settling into his lap with a purposeful roll of her hips into the hot bulge confined to his jeans. Steve's chest was raising and falling so dramatically it lifted her upon each intake of breath; her fingers went about unbuttoning his shirt, while his hands squeezed her hips again.

She opened her eyes and tipped her head, looking at Bucky from under her lashes. He had his eyes glued to their mouthes, his own partially open. He continued to stroke himself lazily, his free hand absently on his thigh. She reached over and took it, pulling him across the gap, putting him next to Steve, who gulped audibly and shut his eyes, pressing shaky kisses on Darcy's collarbone.

"You alright?" Darcy murmured into his temple.

He made a noise like an agreement, though it was strangled.

"Too fast?"

He shook his head, turning to drag his nose across her collar bone. Bucky met his eyes and with his free hand reached over, sliding firm fingers under Steve's neck. He lifted his head and bought his face to his, taking his bottom lip between careful teeth. Darcy sighed, began to attack Steve's neck with her tongue, sucking hard enough to leave marks that wouldn't stay for long.

"Darce. Shirt. Off." Bucky managed to say between kisses.

Darcy obliged, breaking away from Steve a moment to pull her shirt over her head. It was discarded over her shoulder, and she had full intentions of trying to leave a hicky on him that would last, but both boys were now looking at her, faces close together. Bucky's eyes were a curious shade darker than usual and Steve was glancing between her face and her chest, mouthing something that looked suspiciously like a prayer.

"He hasn't seen you before, remember?"

"Yes he has." she corrected. "I was on top of you at the time, remember?"

"But now you're on top of who...?" he flicked his eyes to Steve, who was still staring, hands ghosting up her sides. The soft touch of calloused fingertips did wonders for her, sending goosebumps exploding up her spine, making her body tense.

Darcy took his nervously trembling hands, which hovered around her ribcage, and put them decidedly on her breasts, encouraging his hands to squeeze, moulding her own around his until it felt right and she sighed. Steve licked his lips, blinked at her, and timidly kissed the spillage of breast atop each cup.

"I'm gonna go ahead and involve myself, right _here_." Bucky mused, getting to his feet. "You just, don't move."

Bucky stood behind her, unbound penis nudging between her shoulder blades. He bent at the waist to undo her jeans, one hand cheekily trespassing her underwear and cupping her sex. His fingers parted her and found her clit with an expert ease - she made a sound like whimpering and began to grind into his hand. Steve's mouth suckled at each breast, not yet hard enough to leave marks, which she honestly would've preferred. Darcy wanted to undo his jeans and get inside to feel the hardness she was currently rocking against, but between the way she was sitting and the grabby enthusiasm of the men either side of her, she doubted she'd get much of a chance.

"Bedroom." she tipped her head back, catching Bucky's neck. "Need a bed for these activities."

"Don't need one." Bucky eyed the couch with a cocked brow. "We can get creative here."

"Bed." Steve agreed, nodding. "More room. Wanna touch everyone." his hands sort of skimmed over Darcy's curves, gaining the confidence to bypass her and drag his nails over Bucky's thigh, thumb stroking the crease between leg and hip.

"Well, in that case." Bucky lifted Darcy at the waist to set her aside, on her feet. "You go ahead, we'll be there in just a second."

He grabbed a handful of Steve's shirt and hauled him up out of the sofa, twisting his fingers through his hair. Darcy got to observe them kissing whilst on par - with no interruptions from her, they managed to nearly devour each other.

Steve's hands were hard, in claws, raking over Bucky's spine until his backside, where he promptly grabbed a handful of him and yanked him closer. Bucky's cock was caught between them, between naked hip and jean clad thigh, and he made a desperate noise like groaning, hips flexing.

His hands where under Steve's arms, digging into his shoulders. He had a certain smug air about him, thrusting between them with a calm rhythm, though Steve's brow was drawn in concentration and his teeth were bared whenever he shifted to draw breath.

Darcy unhooked the catches of her bra and slingshotted it at the two, rather distracted, men. Bucky caught it without looking, but Steve jerked his head away to observe with his mouth hanging open, eyes innocently huge, like he had meant to follow her, it was Bucky's fault he hadn't.

"Bucky's bed is biggest." she informed him with a coy flutter of her lashes, and began to saunter away.

They followed, naturally, Bucky dragging Steve along by the belt buckle. Darcy had pulled herself onto the bed and was waiting with raised brows and crossed legs - she thought she looked very demure, considering the fact that she was completely naked from the waist up. Bucky got to her first, standing before her knees.

"You're still banned from kissing me." she told him, cocking a brow.

"Lucky for you, we don't need my mouth." he looked over his shoulder at Steve. "Ever made a girl cream by just using your hand?"

Steve was watching them speak, possibly waiting for the moment they began bickering and he needed to step in, but he was also staring at Bucky's naked ass, the strong muscles in his shoulders, the curve of his lower spine. Upon hearing his name, he guiltily looked back up at them.

"Steve." he said lowly. "You ever made a lady come at all?"

He shrugged one shoulder, staring at Darcy's face. She was watching him with her lip bitten between her teeth, breathing heavily.

"I'd like to learn." he offered, and Bucky grinned.

"That's my boy."

Steve already had color in his cheeks, but it blossomed now, and he bowed his head.

"Does the lady get any say in this at all?" Darcy wondered out loud. Bucky turned his attention back to her, his grin something feral and amused. She was momentarily unsure of why he was so proud of himself, until she was bouncing back on the bed, with a sergeant between her knees and both her wrists trapped in his hand.

"Oh, Bucky, don't." she squirmed half heartedly, tried to clamp her knees shut, but he was already between them. "I want to enjoy this for as long as possible and -"

"You will. Come on. Steve gets to teach me all about kissin' a lady, but I don't get to teach him anything about making one come?"

It was gonna be over in a matter of minutes for her, and she had wanted to be present on the precipice of pleasure with them. Bucky had _amazing_ fingers. He knew just where to touch, where to press - he played her like a master puppeteer, pulling strings and strumming her insides to make her bend, squirm and buck to his liking.

"Fine. But- But his shirt comes off." Darcy's voice cracked. "And I wanna touch."

"Bad luck."

"I wanna touch Steve."

"You shoulda thought about that before you suggested the bedroom, and before he went ahead and took my ability to kiss you away from me." Bucky drawled, drawing his stubbled chin over the top of her breast. "Now you're in trouble, baby doll."

"Steve," she said, trying to sit. "I wanna_ touch _you."

Steve finished undoing the last buttons of his shirt and discarded it. He toed off boots and socks, then paused with his hands on his jeans, chest expanding rapidly as the nerves of what he was doing began to sing a little song about right and wrong. He thought about the last time he'd been with some one - Jessica - and how he'd been so concerned with her enjoyment his own first experience with sex had been lackluster, at best.

She had kissed him and told him it was a beautiful thing, they had done, that she knew he still loved her when he came into her, but he didn't feel love, so much as duty. He had been saving lives for such a long time he was used to it, no matter the cost.

"Steve, we don't have to... You know. Go all the way." Darcy told him gently. "We can just... Explore."

"Yeah." Bucky had zeroed in on his fingers - Darcy was likewise staring, but her gaze roamed the rest of his body. "Explore."

"But you kinda have to be over here, and a part of this, for that particular adventure." Darcy said with a small smile up at him. He watched her thigh lift and wrap around Bucky's hip, his free hand squeezing the back of her knee. "If you're okay with this."

"I'm okay with this." he let loose a quietly nervous chuckle. "I'm _very _okay with this. I'm just thinking..."

"You're_ over _thinking. You're killing me here, Steve." Bucky murmured. "You can take 'em off and get here, or leave 'em on, whatever, either way, get on the bed, would ya? The lesson's gonna start soon."

"Sir yes _sir_." Steve tried to bite back his smile, but Darcy did not, giggling quite freely as Bucky managed to drag his eyes up to the Captain's face.

"You're in trouble next." he was promised. "If the jeans don't come off now, they're coming off later."

"You make it sound like a bad thing." Darcy teased, and settled her head between the arc of her bound arms, giving Steve a smile that lit up the whole room. "So. You gonna get over here, Captain my Captain?"

"Yes, ma'am." he said, and shucked his jeans, but left his boxers on.

He climbed on the bed, flushing with color. He could actively feel the heat in his face, generated from just how they stared. He was on hands and knees, beside Darcy, on par with Bucky. He bent to press a tender kiss on her forehead, the bridge of her nose and her mouth - she tried to invite him inside, to which he continued on down her chin, throat, and chest, kissing each nipple before he swallowed a nervous mouthful and leaned over to kiss the head of Bucky's penis.

That made the sergeant jolt back, a winded noise leaving his mouth like he'd head butted him in the gut, not tested the warmth of his cock with a small kiss. Steve looked up at him with unblinking eyes, mouth still in a half pout.

"No one touch me." Darcy said mildly. "I think I may have just had a small orgasm."

"Small? That's not good enough, not for our girl." Bucky murmured, moving one hand to his cock. He gave it a few tugs, taking a deep breath in, before inclining his head to Darcy's wrists, still trapped in his hand. "Take one, would ya?"

"Steve, come on, I just wanna-"

"Trust me, she will _claw_ you. Time for that later." he sunk lower, bringing down the wrist to pin it against the mattress by her hip. Steve did much the same thing, still watching Bucky, the stunned reaction he had received. "You-... I'm gonna get to you, after we're done here."

The sergeant put his fingers in the band of her jeans and tugged - Steve took the opposite side, and in seconds, they were down around her knees. Her panties were black, with a small frill around the thigh and a red bow on the waistline.

"All wrapped up in a present." Bucky murmured. "Now, Steve. We leave the panties on until she asks us nice and pretty to take them off. She has to ask _nicely_. You'll know it when you hear it."

"Okay." Steve licked his lips.

"Also -" Bucky yanked the jeans to her heels and pulled them back up, so that her knees were open and feet near her butt. She yelped and blushed from the position, but Bucky leaned down and rubbed his nose against her hip, chuckling lowly. "- You're gonna have to do it solo, Cap."

"Alright." Steve looked at Darcy's face, watching him with worry pitching her eyebrows. Her knees strained to close so he slid his palm up the length of her calf, kissing the top of her knee. "You're beautiful, Darcy, all over."

"I_ really_ don't think so."

"I don't either." Bucky intoned. "I _know _so."

"Taking a leaf out of Steve's book?" she was blushing through the compliment, however, so Bucky grinned, and nibbled her hip, turning his head to give Steve a pointed look.

"Kiss between her thighs, and work your way up." he said lowly. "She's gonna start rockin', you wanna stop that."

"Why?" Steve lowered his face to her leg and kissed softly, no tongue, no teeth, a dry peck of lips on skin that made her almost purr.

"Because it means she wants you to hurry up, and she did just tell me she wanted to enjoy herself." Bucky informed him, watching the way Steve peppered those kisses towards her panties. He watched Darcy's face, pinched in concentration, trying hard to stop her body from naturally reacting as Bucky said it would. As it was, she did not rock, she merely shivered, when Steve's tender kisses were so close to the apex of her thighs his nose brushed the black lace covering her crotch.

"See how she's wet for you?" Bucky murmured. "Suck on that wet patch there. Make her even wetter."

"Jesus, Christ." Darcy wasn't breathing regularly, biting into her lower lip as Steve did as he was told. Her mouth dropped open and she uttered a breathy line of: _'Oh my God_'s into the room. Steve suckled at her, the fabric obstructed his taste and view of her. All he knew was the little keened noises she was making caused his cock to twitch, and the scent of her alone made his mouth dry, hungry for more.

"Now." Bucky's voice was in a low drawl,almost a purred command. "Lick a line up her, _Captain_, find where she cringes. That's the spot."

"The spot?" Steve murmured, but did as he was bid, starting from as low as his tongue could reach and dragging up the soaked material until Darcy's body jolted. Again, he repeated the lengthy lick, finding the spot that made her flinch all over again. He noticed the goosebumps raising on her legs, the way Bucky had to wedge her legs open so they didn't clamp on his head.

"Flick it with your tongue." Bucky told him roughly. "Do it harder if you want her to lose control."

"Mmph!" Darcy's whole body arched. Steve lifted his head, concerned he had done something wrong, and she relaxed, exhaling a long held breath. She looked at him, panting, dazed expression.

"Do you like that, Darcy?" he honestly just wanted to know.

"Very much." she whispered, eyes big and blue. She bit her lip, and he maintained the eye contact with her as he lowered her mouth back to her panties. He sucked on the wet patch and watched her expression evolve; the more instant expression when he found The Spot and sucked there, instead.

In ten seconds, she was twisting, hips keening up into his mouth, begging.

"Oh God. Oh God _please_."

"God ain't gonna help you now, woman." Bucky teased.

"Bucky-"

"I ain't gonna help you either."

"Steve." she lifted her head, panting. "Steve, please!"

"Please...?"

She dropped her head back on the bed, groaning, puffing.

"Please," she said to the ceiling. "Take my panties off."

"See how nice our girl can be?" Bucky murmured, leaning over to kiss the junction between Steve's jaw and throat. "See how pretty she can be?"

"She's always pretty to me." Steve returned lowly.

"Not like this, she ain't." he nipped Steve's shoulder. "Get rid of her panties."

Steve hooked one finger under the elastic, and Darcy lifted her hips to help him. He slid them over thighs till her knees, and left them pulled tight around her ankles, further locking her feet together.

"Lesson two. Watch, learn." Bucky mused, and lifted her legs, effectively trapping his head between her thighs. He still held her wrist down in one hand, but the free one had returned to his cock, and was stroking, tightening at the tip.

He licked a broad line from bottom to top of her pussy, collecting her wetness on his tongue. Darcy's entire body arched, and her hands tried in vain to break free from both of them with a renewed vigour. He flicked his tongue over her clit until she was squirming, his name a repetitive, breathless mantra.

"Bucky, Bucky, _Bucky, please_ - !"

"Now Steve." he sat back as far as she would allow him, turned his head to see that Steve's fingers were linked with hers as opposed to trapping her wrist. She was squeezing his hand and he returned it, though he was focused on his lesson. "Wanna taste?"

"Yes." he had to take a moment to adjust his length in his boxers, flipping it up along his belly, before he got onto his stomach and elbows to be closer. Darcy wriggled, kicking the jeans off, and Bucky tossed them somewhere in the direction of the bathroom. She opened her leg and Steve kissed her knee, situating himself between her legs.

Instead of licking her, however, he kissed Bucky, tongue invading his mouth to sample her flavour.

"Tasty, isn't she?" Bucky murmured against his mouth, eyes half lidded.

"Mmm..." Steve turned his attention back to Darcy, and leaned in, timidly prodding her lower lips with the tip of his tongue. She caught her breath and held it, the rest of her body seizing up in a tight knot while he gained his confidence, short strokes driving her nearly insane. He dragged his tongue over her entire slit, feeling her heat, tasting her particular brand of sex, before sitting back, glancing at Bucky.

"Like that?"

"Lesson passed, flying colours." he was still tugging himself, though now there was a little more urgency behind the wrist twists. "Now with your fingers. Like this." he let go of himself, wiping his own precum onto the sheets, before angling his hand and stroking her opening, teasing a moment.

"_Bucky_." Darcy warned. "I mean it. Take your time. I want to enjoy this."

"Baby girl, I told you, you're gonna." he mused, and bit the inside of her thigh, making her yelp. Steve instantly shot forward to soothe it with his kisses, causing her to moan, lift her hips off the bed. "Psh. Romantic."

"Gentleman." Steve corrected, and Darcy agreed in a strangled hum.

Bucky's only reply was to press two fingers into her. She was silky wet, burning up, and started to rock herself onto his hand, gyrating to gain delicious friction. He withdrew his fingers, making her start to swear at him, threaten his life, until he pressed them back into her, where she promptly began to fuck herself on them again.

And again, he took them out, dragging her slickness over his taste buds with only one finger. The other he offered to Steve, who rather enthusiastically opened his mouth for, tongue rubbing, lips sucking. Bucky's cock started throbbing, complaining about the lack of attention. He may or may not have been rutting against his own mattress to ease that pain, just like when he was a teenager, alone. If his fifteen year old self could've seen him now...

"You try." he murmured.

The same second his finger was released, his palm went back to his cock and he used their combined saliva to jerk himself some more, steadily working a faster rhythm.

Steve sucked his own fingers for a second, then stroked the folds of her body to coat them some more.

"Steve... Steve, please,_ please_..."

"Go slow. Don't mind her. She wanted you to take your time, remember?"

"You did say you wanted to take our time." Steve recalled, fascinated by the actions of his own hand.

"Forget that! Someone get in me, already!"

"No." Bucky mused, and crawled up to mouthe at Steve's neck. "You just explore our girl, for a minute. Figure it out for yourself."

"I prefer you tell me what she likes." Steve admitted, turning his face to kiss Bucky's mouth. "I like this lesson."

"There's a couple more I can give you." he replied. "Not just for her, either. Us, too." Steve's fingers stalled on Darcy while his mind processed that. Bucky kissed his chin as if to reassure him that their interlude would be _safe _and _right_, and Steve returned the favour by dragging his teeth over the meat of his shoulder.

"Another time." Steve murmured, and Bucky was okay with that if it meant more times were going to happen. "Let me ace this test, first."

Finally, he slid his fingers into her, letting a long held breath slide between his teeth in a hiss.

"You're so _warm_." he growled, and bowed his head to her chest. His fingers let her hand go - she, true to Bucky's word, clawed his shoulder, before dragging his head down to her nipple. He curled his finger in a 'come hither' motion and she cried out, squirmed, saying his name and trying to encourage him to move by rolling her hips.

"And soft." he sucked at her chest for a moment, making himself release her nipple before he left a mark. She grabbed a handful of his hair, dragging him up to her mouth, to kiss him, prodding his lip with her tongue in a desperate mimic of what his pumping into her body was doing.

"And so wet." he had never experienced this before, didn't even know this was something a man could do to a woman. His entire palm was coated in it, the slick wetness that tasted like sin, but felt like heaven. He started to pump harder, making her body jolt on each upstroke, hand making smacking sounds as it hit home.

Darcy was near crying, bouncing on his hand with her nails digging into his shoulder. She needed more of something, of someone, needed Bucky or Steve or some_thing_ more. She was so close, and he kept on brushing her clit but the small attention wasn't enough, the minor presses, the occasional beat of hand against her couldn't quite push her over. She was babbling but not totally sure of what she was saying; she only knew the feeling of Steve's body hovering beside hers, his mouth on her nipple, hand doing wonderful, _terrible _things to her.

"Steve." Bucky said roughly, and Steve's hand stilled, inside of her.

His hand was now completely against her clit and she squirmed, rutting herself against it, body coiling, ready to release. Bucky stopped holding both himself and her wrist to catch her hips, holding her still, keeping her from the brink for no other reason than he could. In the beginning, she had wanted it to last, to enjoy both her boys to the fullest extent.

Now she just wanted to come.

"She's almost there." Bucky was panting, red cheeked, a sweat on his brow. His cock was leaking, the entire length slick, throbbing, against Darcy's open thigh. "Just a few more, and she's almost gonna come."

"Yeah?" Steve growled. "That's what I want."

"That's what_ I _want." Darcy mimicked in a snap. "And I want it _now_."

"I'm not far off." he warned the both of them. "I got it, trust me. But Steve..."

Steve remained unattended, trapped in his boxer shorts, tenting the material and straining painfully hard.

"Gimme!" Darcy's clawed hand fell from his shoulder to the elastic around his hips, pulling it up and around the Captain's bobbing length. Steve almost protested, but as the only one still clothed, he was the odd one out. He breathed a little easier with his cock free, but not so much easier when Darcy licked her palm and took a hold of him.

"Jesus _fuck!_" he bent over her, one hand in a fist to keep himself on all fours. "Darcy, Darcy, baby, slow down, slow _down_, or I'm gonna-"

"Mess up the sheets?" Bucky guessed, laying along side her. He lifted to give Steve a long, sloppy, wet kiss, then settled beside her, watching as she rolled her body and tugged at Steve simultaneously, sweat beading on her hairline. "'Bout time we christened this damn bed."

"You haven't-?" Steve stuttered so hard he had to stop speaking, dropping his forehead to her shoulder, hips rocking forward in response to the enthusiastic tugging.

"We need you." Darcy reminded him breathlessly. "Need you all the time. Need you _now_."

"Oh." he'd forgotten the position in which his fingers were in, and started to rectify his mistake with vigour. Darcy let a short scream burst through her mouth, but he swallowed it, catching the begging and the moans with an open kiss. Her hand was at his cock - his fingers were in her - but watching, Bucky was the first to spill, making a winded noise and turning to rut against the mattress, his back rippling with corded muscles.

He was still throbbing, still spurting, when he turned to watch the other two finish. He could see the angle Darcy had contorted her back into - the lack of attention paid to her swollen nub. He sighed, rolling his eyes, pushing himself up to pull Steve's hand out by the wrist.

"No - nonono -!" she stopped jerking Steve, who had already bared his teeth at Bucky for interrupting them. "No - I need it - I _need_ him -"

"He needs _help_." Bucky retorted, and lifted her leg, positioning Steve's hand under her thigh and back inside her slit so his hand was out of his way. "Don't glare at me like that, Captain."

"Well let us get a move on, Sergeant!"

Bucky just snickered, situating his mouth over her clit again.

"Remember that time I kept fucking Darcy even though you were watching? You asked me why. I told you it was because I was close to coming... I asked you if you'd ever been asked to put off an orgasm." his eyes flicked to Steve's cock, which was nearly purple and angry looking, opalescent at the tip. "Now you know."

He dropped his tongue to her clit, and started to dart his tongue over it, in time with Steve's manic thrusts, also echoing the way Darcy tugged at him. They were all in the same rhythm, in the same desperation.

Steve's entire body shook, and he made loud noises as he shot his first load - Darcy came shortly after, body arched. Bucky steered her hips up so he could continue to tongue her clit and Steve continue to pump his hand, which made her squeal, and squirm, tossing her head from side to side.

Steve's arm gave out, and he collapsed by her side, eyes shut while the last pulses of orgasm consumed him. His fingers more lazily pumped in and out of her, curling on each upstroke, making her mewl.

Her free hand went to Bucky's hair, dragging her nails over his scalp as his kissed her mound, as opposed to assaulting her clit, lest he overstimulated her. She pulled him up, kissing his mouth and licking whatever she could of herself off his lips, humming contentedly from her chest.

Her other hand drew up Steve's spine, coaxing him closer from where he was dozing on the side. He rolled closer, pressing small kisses to her neck and cheek, her temple and nose, darting in between Bucky's lazy kiss to steal one from her mouth as well.

Bucky lowered himself onto her body like a heavy, breathing blanket, catching the back of Steve's head to give him a long, hungry kiss.

"Oh god, guys, give a girl a minute." Darcy groaned as the kiss intensified, both fighting for a dominance that neither would give. "You're gonna get me all horny again and I just don't know how I'm going to fuck either of you right now, okay?"

Steve flushed at the word, Bucky just bared his teeth in a near animalistic grin, dropping a kiss to the centre of her chest, before he settled on her side, head on her boob.

"So this is why you lay like this." he teased, smirking at Steve, who returned to peppering Darcy's face with kisses. "Comfy."

"You've got a heavy head, Barnes." Darcy informed him, but her fingers threaded through his hair to keep him still. Like wise, Steve settled, kissing Bucky's forehead and cheekbone lightly, before he took the other breast and sighed, closing his eyes.

"Love you." Steve reminded them.

"Love you too." Darcy intoned, as Bucky did much the same.


	16. Chapter 16

Steve came into consciousness but didn't open his eyes. All he knew was, his chest and arm felt ice cold, and he could feel his shoulders curling, a shaky breath drawn in. He found warmth at his waist and pulled it over his sternum, breathing hard onto his fingers to feel that he could, in fact, still breathe.

"You're with me." Bucky told him, linking their fingers over the rapidly pounding heart. "In New York."

"Mm?" New York? They were in New York? Why were they in bed together? Was he wearing pants? "Buck?"

"I'm here." the brunette shifted, arms flexing around him, squeezing for comfort. Steve became very aware that, while he was under a cover, he was naked all over, and Bucky was equally naked behind him. He became aware that what had started out as a horrible day had became a very good day, and for the first time in a long time, he had felt at _home_.

The only thing was, he'd never been between a man and a woman before. There was really no reason it should have felt so familiar.

"Where's Darcy?" he lifted his head, squinting into the dark room. A regular human would've seen nothing; he saw enough to confirm she was absent.

"Just got up to make some breakfast." Bucky nosed his shoulder. "You can go back to sleep. I'm not going any where."

"Hm." he put his head back down, found he was still actively clinging to the hand on his chest. "How was she?"

"Darcy?" Steve could feel the grin curving the brunette's mouth. He snickered - something Steve could feel, more than hear - and pressed a long, warm kiss, to the back of his neck. "Just about bounced outta the room. She's glowing."

"Good." he replied, and closed his eyes again, shifting back into the hold like he'd been doing it his whole life.

"Steve?"

"Mm?"

"How are_ you_?"

"Fine." he was over and above the tiny descriptive word, but he didn't think trying to explain his contentment would fully assure the assassin, not yet. The thing he had fast learned about the twenty-first century Bucky was that he did not trust, not like he used to. "What am I supposed to be feeling?"

"I don't know. I expected you to run."

"Not from you." he turned his head to see Bucky's expression. "I told you. You've got me."

"Shucks." Bucky drew his thumb over the dimples in the Captain's smile. "You my fella, Steve?"

Steve scowled.

"You want me as your fella, Buck?"

"I do." he nosed his cheek, the same dimple Steve struggled to hide behind a sober face. "I want you as mine."

"I was always yours." Steve reminded him quietly, rubbing his bicep. "Just like you were mine. My best friend, my brother, my..."

"You say 'everything', and I'm confiscating those trashy romances from Darcy."

"I was gonna say 'comrade', but I failed you there. Wasn't exactly something I wanted to remind you of."

"There wasn't a damn thing you coulda done." his arms went vice like around the Captain as if he had tried to struggle away. Steve sighed, pressed a kiss on the bicep resting over his collar bone, agreeing only with a low noise. "Steve, I mean it. I couldn't have done it, seein' as you're now taller than I am. I couldn't have reached you, even if I didn't have a train to stowaway on, right?"

"You don't know," Steve murmured. "What it was like, to watch you fall. The look on your face. If I hadda been a proper Captain I'd-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there." Bucky's palm clamped over his mouth. He leaned over and kissed his cheek, then removed his hand to half cover the blonde, drawing him in for a long kiss. It wasn't his usual teeth and tongue battle - it was soft. _Warm_. Steve's hands went to his waist and he dug his fingertips in to feel the way the sergeant was breathing.

Long and heavy through his nose, his chest expanded slowly and Steve could feel himself softening, coming out of his cold self-loathing. That was, of course, why Bucky distracted him the way he did. There was only so much he was able to reflect on when there was a hot body and wet mouth on him.

"You're _purring_." Bucky mused, trailing his mouth of Steve's jaw.

"I do not _purr_!" but he was making a low humming noise that could be described that way. "I don't- _ah-_"

Steve had never been on the receiving end of Bucky's more gentle affections; but he liked them. He liked them a lot. He was currently sucking Steve's ear, tracing the cartilage with his tongue, and it made Steve painfully aware of how _naked _he was.

"Buck- Bucky, Jesus - what-?"

"Just wanted to remind you, had I not fallen from the train, I wouldn't been able to do this to you." he moved those blunt teeth over the pulse of Steve's throat. "Wouldn't been able to... Do _this_, to you." he dragged his mouth lower, crawling back.

"Buck? B_ucky_-?" His voice pitched, one hand slapping over his own mouth to try and catch the sound.

The returned grin was sinful, with his prickly chin in the middle of Steve's chest.

"H-Hang on, hang on a second, whatta you doing-?!"

"You ain't never had someone kiss you lower than your belly button...?"

"No!"

"And there's a problem with that bein' me?"

"N-No, but, now? Right _now_?" he glanced at the door. "What about Darcy?"

"What _about_ Darcy?" Bucky cocked a brow. "She'll walk in and find a place to fit. She's a smart one, our girl."

Steve swallowed, and wet his lips, glancing between the cheeky grin and the door. He could hear Darcy in the kitchen, hear the squeak of her chair as it adjusted to her weight, the small popping noises from her iPad sending emails, and the T.V on low in the background.

"I... If..."

Bucky just rolled his eyes, and began mapping out the contours of Steve's six pack with his tongue. He continued to move lower, but Steve grew somewhat impatient, and in a semi-complex lift and roll he flipped Bucky under him, twisting them both in the covers until they were on par.

He had Bucky's wrists in both hands and was sitting on his belly - Bucky's eyes flashed, the grin widened, and although he tried to wrestle up, it was half hearted, playful.

"I'm your fella, ain't I?" Steve's thumb was stroking the row of knuckles on each captured hand. "I get to hold you as I like?"

"Whatever you want, baby boy," Bucky cooed, Steve scowled. "You got it, if I can give it to you."

Steve bent at the waist to kiss him.

They were steadily heating up when Darcy opened the door, her face pale and slightly sad. When she saw the boys - her boys, all sexy and warm and happy - she melted a little, leaning on the door frame for support.

"Good morning, Darcy." Steve turned, pulling the blankets over him as he climbed off the brunette, who groaned and rubbed his face with both hands.

"Good morning, Steve." she replied.

"Yeah, good timing, Lewis. Things were just_ finally_ getting interesting."

"Looked like it. I can come back...?"

"I don't wanna kick you outta your own bed." Steve opened his arms for her, beaming. Bucky rose a brow at the side of his head. It went ignored.

"Yeah, you're gonna have to kick a little harder." she mused.

"I'd never hurt you, Darce. You're a lady."

"And you love me."

"_And_ I love you." now her knees were jelly, and she was going through the motions of a serious blush.

"You two make me sick." Bucky drawled. "Sweet enough to give a guy a toothache, you know that?"

"Well aware." Darcy said, and padded over to the bed, climbing up on it to outrightly bury her face against Steve's chest. She was in his shirt - minus a bra - with a loose pair of Bucky's shorts on her legs. Steve kissed the top of her head, and Bucky ran his hand over the planes of Steve's stomach, still damp with his kisses, to smooth his hand over her shirt front.

"How are you?" Steve asked her softly, pressing those little kisses of his to her forehead.

"About us? I'm good. I'm _so good_ with this. It's just... yes."

"Right." Steve nodded.

"Our puzzle's comin' together real nice." Bucky mused, tucking his hand between her tummy and Steve's ribcage. "But you look put out, baby doll. Wassamatter, you want a Darcy sandwich?"

"I _always _want a Darcy sandwich." she informed him, very seriously. Steve laughed; Bucky lifted his head and set his chin on her shoulder, pressing a stubbly kiss to her temple.

"My keen spy senses are detecting a 'but', here?" he seemed very amused, one brow cocked, faint smirk on his mouth.

"Steve," she looked up at him with big eyes. "Was there a reason you came over here this morning?"

"Yeah." he kissed her head again. "There was."

"Do you wanna maybe share that now?"

He thought he'd heard it on the low television, but given he had a super solider's tongue in his mouth, he had been distracted. He hadn't lied, when he said that the silence and loneliness of his Stark apartment was getting to him, because it was. He went to them, however, to keep them informed of the media circus that was his life.

"Jessica... A photo got leaked to the media. It's... I don't know how they got it. It's... Not looking good, for me, but Darcy, they can't see you, so you're still safe. That's the main thing."

"What photo?" Bucky was looking between them both. "Steve, what photo?"

"You should know." Darcy mumbled, but turned to hide her face in his collar bone until Steve had to explain.

* * *

The photo Bucky had taken of them cuddled up in bed together was all over the news, the internet, and lips on supportive New Yorkers _everywhere_. Darcy's face was obstructed by the bulge of Steve's arm and her own bed hair - but her shape was decidedly feminine, hair dark, clearly not Jessica's. The flowers were visible on the bedside table, and Steve's remarkable features were sharpened by the light of the laptop. His arm was clearly around her, palm planted firmly on her lower belly, fingers splayed to heat up as much of her as he could.

* * *

"Some one in your clean-up crew is responsible for that photo going viral." Darcy aimed her scowl across the desk at Pepper, even if Pepper wasn't entirely to blame. "One of your friends who moved all our stuff took it, and sold it."

"Which is why we're having a party to fix it." Tony supplied.

"Gala." Pepper corrected.

"A_ fancy_ party." He amended, and cocked a brow at the way the trio were sitting on the two seater before him. Darcy was in the middle - Bucky's hand on her thigh, Steve's arm behind her shoulders, positioned so that her head was cradled in the crook of his elbow. Darcy had a hand on Bucky's, and one leg hooked over Steve's, foot bopping to the music in her head. "So. Anything you three wanna share?"

"No." Steve and Bucky said together. Darcy said: "There's something to be said about super solider stamina. What a mouthful. And I mean, a_ mouthful_-"

Tony chortled, swinging his feet from his position on the desk, but Pepper continued on as if the innuendo hadn't been spoken.

"You two-" she flicked her pen between Steve and Darcy. "-will be attending together as a couple."

"We're playing True Love?"

"Got it in one." Tony nodded, watching Bucky's expression.

"True Love?" Steve repeated.

"PR." Darcy leaned her head back into his arm - Bucky eyed the length of her throat. "If the public thinks we're in real and true love, they'll excuse misdemeanors. It's how Thor gets away with everything, how Bruce got away with destroying Harlem, and just about every other thing Pepper wants to kept low key in the media. True love is like... our go to defensive stratagem."

"But in public?" Steve looked lost between Pepper's scrutinizing gaze and Tony's much more mischievous one. "Darcy is-... Bucky is Darcy's-... They're in... A thing."

"Have a little faith, Steve." Bucky mused, slinging his arm over Steve's to tug at his ear lobe. "I _know_ she's in good hands with you."

"Quit." he angled his head away but Bucky just flicked his ear and withdrew his arm before Steve could punch it. Darcy took his mechanical hand, folded up his fingers, and put it on her lap, between both of hers. Steve was giving the brunette a dark stare over Darcy's head, but Bucky was grinning like an imp.

"The party is in a month." Tony said, dropping down from the desk.

"Gala." Pepper corrected. "The theme is superhero. Naturally, you will be in Captain America colours."

Bucky leaned over so that only Darcy and Steve could hear him mutter:

"You've got a pretty pair of panties that'll fit the bill..."

Darcy elbowed him, Steve cracked his neck swivelling to stare.

"Got it," Darcy said mildly. "Please excuse me while I strangle the Winter Solider, for a sec?"

* * *

NEW CHAPTER TOMORROW.

IT WON'T BE THIS DISAPPOINTING I SWEAR.


	17. Chapter 17

Two Days Later

* * *

"You have got to be kidding me."

"I don't have to be doing anything."

Natasha lifted up Darcy's curled hair, and with an effortless twist, held it in an elegant mess.

"See, it's not so bad."

"I _can't_ wear this."

"Why?"

"Because it makes my tits look huger than average!" she palmed her chest, lifting both breasts to try and compress them with her hands. "Also, I can't breathe."

"You're complaining too loudly to claim you can't breathe." Natasha informed her. "It's not as bad as you think it is."

"My tits, though. They're just- _so big_."

"You say it like its a bad thing." Bucky drawled, face hovering over her shoulder. He hadn't been invited, of course, into the change room, but Bucky Barnes was a highly trained spy, and frequently flaunted his sneaky prowess by going places he shouldn't. He hadn't so much as been invited to go dress shopping; Darcy had started off baulking at the idea of even being escorted by Natasha.

But only twenty minutes into their adventure, Bucky had found them, and so had the media. After that, Darcy took all the spy help she could get.

"What do you think of the colours?" Natasha asked, dropping Darcy's hair.

"The hell do I know about colours?" he scoffed. "That kinda thing is Steve's area of expertise." he gave her a long once over, the pout on her mouth, hands still trying to shrink the size of her chest. He put his arms around her and slid hands over her wrists, popping his chin on her shoulder.

"You look miserable, baby doll."

"I'm tired. My feet hurt. This dress makes me look fat."

"It does not." Natasha informed her.

Bucky agreed by pressing a kiss to her cheek.

"Darlin', you'd look good in a potato sack."

"Then I'll dye one spangled and wear that with some flip flops."

"I'm fairly sure Stark would let you." he nodded, grinning. He released her to step back and hold her hand, lifting it above her head. "C'mon, princess, give us a spin."

Grudgingly, still holding her boob with one hand, Darcy span, grateful that she was finally barefoot to do it.

"Patriotic enough for you?" she grumped.

He said nothing, but was going to get a punch in the smirk any way.

* * *

Three boutiques. Several hours at each. She had spent nearly all day squeezing into, and swimming around in, dresses, gowns, capes - bra on and off and tightened and heightened, heels, flats, wedges, hair twisted, pinned in, taken down, shaken up!

Natasha was on a mission to find her a dress that adequately translated her love for America's Man with a Plan and she was equally as thorough with it as any other; she dissected the cut, fit, quality and practicality of each gown before the color or the final verdict.

All her little outfits thus far were met with '_No, it's too_-' insert reason here. Natasha had only mentioned that she had the stamina to continue hunting for the correct gown once, and had Darcy cringing every time the dresses didn't turn out the way they liked when the perfect Russian took a hit to the ego like it was getting personal.

* * *

"Please, _please tell me_, that you have some other place we can check out? Some other dress? Not this one?"

Bucky framed her waist with his hands and pressed a kiss to her cheek to tell her he quite liked it, unflattering though it may be. It was wrap around in style, high collared, long sleeved. The bodice was navy blue, with the fasteners on the back in bright red. The split up the side was more to dance a rumba than anything - while the outside of the dress was modest blue, the spilling frills underneath where white and red, flashing only when she walked or spun.

"No." Natasha said slowly. "It's too..."

"Ugly?" Darcy said, and tried to undo the hooks from around the back of her neck. "Uncomfortable? And I can't breathe-!"

"You're complaining pretty loudly for someone who can't breathe." Bucky mused, batting her fingers away to undo it for her.

"That's what she said!" Darcy bit back, and Natasha smiled behind her head at the Winter Solider. "Nat, please tell me there's another store?"

"Not any that suit the brief." she replied, still looking at Bucky as he easily unhooked the catches of the dress. "I have a database to sort through. We could go back and try on the ice queen dress?"

Darcy's Ice Queen dress to was the one that she first tried on in a fit of exited shopping optimism. It started off blue in the centre of her chest, and frosted into silver into the sleeve and skirt with a gradual build up of threaded glitter. It also has crystals trimming the straight cut over her chest and around her wrists... Aaaaand it cost the same amount as an average house deposit. She felt scared to move in it, a fact Natasha was completely aware of, even if she had called the dress 'nice' and told her Tony was a bajillionaire who could afford it.

"Ice Queen?" Bucky's eyebrows cocked. "You're goin' on a date with _Captain America_ in a dress that makes you look like queen of the _ice_?"

"Point taken." Natasha mused, and finally took her gaze away from him, just in time to see Darcy studying it in the mirror. "We might have to go international."

"I'm not leaving Steve." she retorted sharply, then exhaled her frustration under the raised brow. "Look, I can't leave when he's feeling like he is. If I - if we - let Jessica get to him, I-... I don't even wanna think about what he would do, with all his noble and humble and whatever."

"Then what do we do, puddin'?" Bucky twisted a curl absently around his forefinger. "I could stay with him if you had to go."

"You could. Or-" she popped off the raised dais, heaving her masses of skirt into her arms. She trotted to her bag, flipped it upside down, ignoring the cascade of candy and gum wrappers, old receipts and two pairs of headphones. "I have an idea."

* * *

**To: Snark**

I have a challenge for you. I don't think you can actually do it.

* * *

**From: Snark**

Your teasing me isn't going to make me do anything I don't want to do.

* * *

**To: Snark**

Design me a dress for your fancy party.

* * *

**From: Snark**

I have better things to do with my genius.

* * *

**To: Snark**

Pwetty pwease?

* * *

**From: Snark**

If the goo-goo eyes don't work on me in real life, they won't work via text.

* * *

**To: Snark**

You get to show as much boob as you like.

* * *

He sent her back the pass code to his lab.

* * *

"It's like Captain America spandex and the Iron Man armor had a sexy baby."

"Sexy and baby in the same sentence, really?" Tony threw the digitized copy at her, which conformed to her shape and size, filling the space over her average leggings and jumper with a vibrant green outline. Measurements flitted in neat lines past her face to a holographic notepad floating casually in the air by Tony's head. "Huh. Don't need this."

He plucked a string of lights from the technological copy of her dress and stepped back, eyes going over her.

"It's so _pretty_." she spun, and lifelike, the dress spun with her - she lifted it onto her hand and the skirt fell open in a fantastical drape, glowing faintly. "But, how is this Captain America themed?"

"Geeze, give a guy a break." he dropped into a bobbing crouch, hand scrubbing absently at his facial hair. "I think we need... JARVIS, fill her in?"

"Certainly, sir."

This dress was best. It looked a little Disney princess-esque - but so_ not_.

What looked to be a long corset top finished at her hip, but in reality, was actually impractical armor that lifted, supported, and encased in titanium metal alloy. The bust was mega sweetheart, plunged almost past the end of her sternum, but Darcy had worn worse, none of it so_ awesome. _Underneath the layers of tulle that made up the skirt were white lights that flared only with movement - a white star lit up in the centre of her stomach when they did, a warm glow pulsing with the beat of her heart.

"No red?"

"Lipstick, duh."

"I think I love you."

"Join the club. They meet on Wednesdays at the donut shop at the bottom of the tower. Sometimes I pop down to freak them out." he reached out his hand and the digitalized gown compressed, shrinking as it flew to his palm. "I'll send it off to my people. They'll make it happen."

"It's so badass." she grinned. "You're the best."

"Out of all the men in your life?" he cocked a brow, looking at her from behind the glow of the arc reactor, which made his expression somewhat devious. "_I'm_ the best?"

"The other two are kind of a deal. Buy one, second one comes free."

"I'll just bet he does."

Darcy nodded to her dress and tried to contain the smirk that had cracked on her mouth with varying levels of success.

"Is that gonna be done in two weeks?"

"Puh-lease. I made my suit in four and a half hours when I got home. Leave it with me kid, I'll handle it."

* * *

One Week, Six Days Later

* * *

It was the morning of the fancy party.

They were in the lounge together, watching infomercials, trying to fully wake up. Darcy had legs hooked over the arm of the couch and her head on Steve's thigh - he was running careful fingers over her skull, lulling her to back to sleep. Bucky's arm was over the back of the couch, his hand on the nape of Steve's neck, while the blonde super solider had linked his fingers on his free hand, propped on his thigh.

Their levels of affection had grown exponentially - their sex lives did not. While Darcy would have gladly jumped Steve, Steve was not eager to repeat the sexual process any time soon beyond what they now knew how do do. Bucky was growing increasingly frustrated because as an unspoken rule, if Steve wasn't having sex with Darcy, neither was Bucky. She thought it was unfair and Steve wouldn't know what to do with himself if they did.

The Avengers - Pepper, and Jane included - all knew that Steve had unofficially moved in with them in their apartment, but aside from Clint's amused grins and Tony's sassy one liners pertaining to the thing they were in, no one spoke a word about it, almost as if scared to comment and have the extent of their situation fully realised.

Darcy was just about to suggest a shower... which translated to 'getting nakey and touchy feely' before even getting near the bathroom... when her phone vibrated and cut the prompt short. Bucky leaned over and kissed Steve's temple, then rose to get it, yawning so dramatically his jaw cracked.

"Darce, it's Tasha."

"Yuh huh...?"

He dropped the phone so it would've landed on her belly, but Steve caught it, and handed it to her. She snuggled up to his abs, squinting open a sleepy eye to read the message.

"...Oh sweet baby _Jesus_!" she flew up, thumbs tapping out a furious reply. "You've _got_ to be _kidding_ me. I'm going to taze him in the-!"

"Darcy, what's wrong?" Steve too, stood, hands out to calm her when the verbal tirade went on. The phone buzzed again, and again, she made a valiant attempt to make Steve blush with profanities, while Bucky flicked through channels on the TV. "Tell me, what's happened?"

Bucky kicked his bare feet onto the table.

"Ten bucks says Tony ain't got her dress done."

The resounding groan was all the confirmation he needed; Darcy hit 'reply' to Natasha then hugged Steve tight around the middle, dumping the phone on the couch so hard it bounced twice before lolling sadly into the groove of the cushion.

"He _said_ he could handle it." she grumped.

"Yeah, like the hot mess he is, right into the ground." Bucky scoffed. "Heard Barton talkin' 'bout it with Natasha coupla nights ago."

"You _knew_?" she glared over Steve's arm at him so casually watching the screen.

"I thought he woulda done it by now, but you know, there was that thing with that bad guy." he shrugged, glanced at her. "Oh come on, don't look at me like that. What was telling you gonna do?"

"It would've kicked him in the ass, is what. I would've been on his case so hard he would've needed his armour. He said he could do it."

"Darce," Steve ran his hands over her head. "We _did_ have to save the world three times in the last two weeks..."

"UGH. Don't do that." she hid her face in his chest again. "Stupid perfect Steve. Now I feel bad."

He smiled, rubbed her back.

"It'll be okay. We'll find something. There's still time."

"You can't help." Bucky reminded him. "People know your face now. People are already starting to recognise Darcy by herself, let alone flanked by superheros."

There was a long pause.

"I have one last resort." Darcy murmured. "And there's a fifty percent chance it could crash and burn."

"I'll get the fire extinguisher handy." Bucky said, while Steve's quiet encouragement was a simple kiss on the nose.

* * *

"I like it." Darcy said, studying the chiffon. "But... there's no blue. Or white."

"The shoes are blue." Jane beamed at her. "And accessories are white. I bought them with Tony's credit card."

"You have no shame."

"Try it on." Jane continued, putting the gown into her hands. "I have to pee, _again_."

* * *

Darcy was not like other girls. While Jane and Pepper started getting ready several hours before the clock struck six, Darcy only just managed to pry herself away from her boys and retreat to a shower in what was supposed to be Steve's apartment, all so they could use their bathroom more or less uninterrupted.

All Bucky had seen was a bunch of red material in the bag, but not the full extent of the gown itself; it wasn't like Darcy didn't want to show them, she just didn't remember to. Coming back home - to them - made her forget things as trivial as how her dress fit or the colour, or her shoes. Walking in on Bucky and Steve in the middle of some serious making out made her drop the bags, lock the door, and invite herself into the interlude.

So when she came down the stairs, blue stoned shoes in hand, red skirts billowing out behind her, she felt it was fair that Bucky could only whistle and Steve stared.

"Do you like it?"

Steve held out his hand to her.

"Jesus Christ, woman." Bucky peered down the front of her dress, hooking a finger in the material to pull her over to him. "How'd you fit _those_ in there?"

"With a shoe horn." she cocked a filled in brow.

Her lips were red to match the dress; she wore little pearls on her ears and a silver band with a pearl on the middle finger of her right hand, with a string of pearls to match on her left wrist. She had taken precarious minutes to shape her brows and bronze her cheeks, adding a touch of gold to her eye lids and false lashes to complete the glowing, simple look.

"Is that all you're going to say to me? How I managed to get my boobs in my dress? Because I'm pretty sure I could stab you in the throat with one of these heels and you'd be in a lot of trouble, buddy-"

"You're always pretty, what you wear or how you paint your face makes no difference to me." he peered down her dress, then lifted his hand to her hair, which was in a loose, curly bun, with long strands escaping in whatever way they chose. "And as much as I like seein' you two all dolled up -" he gave Steve's navy suit, red and white striped tie a pointed look.

"I'm not sure how I feel about you goin' in public lookin' as good as you do."

"Deal with it, it's happening, I literally have no where else to get a dress."

"I'll be dealin' with it, alright. Tony says one thing about you, he's gonna know the feeling of a broken nose by a mechanical arm before he finishes the sentence."

"I'm gonna have Captain Asstastic on my arm all night, he won't get the chance." she lifted a more nervous look to Steve, who was still soft faced, hand loosely holding hers. "Well, Captain. What do you think? Nice dress, right?"

Steve swallowed, squeezed her fingers.

"You're perfect." he said, and lifted her hand to his mouth, pressing a short kiss to each knuckle, then her palm.

"Quit before you get something started and we all end up late." Bucky advised, and Steve nodded slowly, almost dreamily. He eyed the shoes in her hand and bent into an easy crouch, taking one ankle in his hand and lifting her foot from the floor.

"Oh wow. My ovaries." Darcy murmured, as he accepted the heel from Bucky and slid it onto her foot. Bucky made like a gentleman and held her forearm to keep her steady, passing the other shoe to Steve so he could complete her look. "That was... I'm not gonna lie, I'm really turned on. I don't know how, 'cuz I don't even like my feet."

"I like your feet." Steve said, lifting the hem of the dress to kiss her knee, smoldering up at her from under his lashes. "I like these shoes." he pressed one more kiss a little more north of the knee cap, and Darcy swallowed, wetted her lips. Bucky's hands encircled her waist; in the shoes, she was nearly as tall as he was, so they were on par, hip to hip.

She felt his hand squeeze lightly then sweep down to her hips, where Steve's hands were holding the dress up. He dug his nails into the back of the Captain's hand, flicked his thumb over the blonde's knuckles.

"When we get home," he said lowly, privately very amused it was_ he_ keeping his head in this situation. "You can like those shoes all you want. You two're gonna be late. You're gonna make _me_ late."

"Don't want that." Darcy muttered, but she was a dirty rotten liar because Steve was giving her this look like his insides were on fire and she was the only glass of water in the room. Bucky's hands pried Steve's away from the dress and it fell between them, just enough so it framed the toes of the bejeweled shoes. He waited until Steve had stood to step to the side and drag him by the tie in for a semi-spectacular kiss that ended when Steve growled and Bucky got his lip bitten.

Darcy went on tip toe to soothe it but Bucky caught he waist and anchored her down.

"You're gonna smudge that pretty lipcolor of yours." he informed her with a maniacal grin. "I told you. When we get home. Later."

"You're in trouble later, then." she promised him darkly, and shoved her elbow back into his solar plexus. He made a gruff noise but it was only for her enjoyment - she took Steve by the arm and wiped a smear of saliva from his blood lip.

"Come on, then, solider." she said in what could pass as a drawl. "We better get there soon so we can get home fast."

* * *

It was a known fact that Tony Stark did nothing by halves.

When he threw a party, he sling shotted that party into the universe and catered enough alcohol to get it started with a bang.

The hall he had hired for the evening was absolutely huge; it was redecorated in reflective mirrors from ground to ceiling, with huge white drapes falling into pools of velvet material. The caterers all wore penguin suits in white trimmed with black, and the tables were done in shiny chrome and glass. The absolute blank elegance of the room made for a perfect backdrop for the personalities that entered, setting a scene that enhanced the attendees to a brilliant degree.

Say, Tony, for example, who showed up in a fire engine red suit with gold tie. Even his shoes were red, and the frames of his glasses were red too. The shirt itself was red with gold flecks but no one noticed the shirt, because it was missing a portion to proudly display the arc reactor beneath. Pepper wore red lips and a huge red stone on her forefinger to match the bold color, while her dress had was golden, all silk, clinging to her thin frame.

Jane was in a modest silver gown that was a corset at the top and full length hoop skirt for the bottom, comprised of layers of silver and navy tulle. She wore a short, bright red cape that perched on her dainty shoulders to bare her collar bone, clipped in the front with a tiny silver hammer. Her clutch was dark blue to match Thor's suit - he wore a white shirt, red tie, hair swept back with some kind of gel and a neat braid.

Natasha was in a clingy blood red gown with no back, and cut outs on the sides that made the bodice as an hourglass. Her purse was a tiny black clutch with silver studs that looked suspiciously like the bullet shaped bracelets that she wore on both wrists; to disguise her identity a little more, she had a blonde wig on in a french roll. Hawkeye, hovering by her side for commentary, went for the black tailored suit, but dark purple shirt. The only other hint of his alter ego were the cheap arrow shaped cuff links, which were hidden under rolled sleeves.

Bruce had shown up and left before Darcy and Steve had made it through the red carpet and the paparazzi. Bucky told them both he was in a black suit, with a bottle green shirt and no tie.

Bucky, for lack of a better word, looked like a lady killer. He had his hair all slicked back, neatly combed into place. He wore a normal black suit that fit him well, though the seams did strain across his shoulders; Darcy was making stink eyes at all the girls that were clinging to him, even when she had Steve Rogers aiding her teetering walk around the hall.

"Was he always like that?" she looked up to Steve, who was already watching her with a serene smile on his face. He hummed, made her repeat the question, then glanced at the super solider working his magic across the room.

"Yeah, he was." he looked down at her again. "Imagine me, half his size and tryna land myself a dame of my own with him in the room."

"I would've liked to have known you then." Darcy declared abruptly.

"I would've too." he lifted a gentle finger tip to trace the shape of her brow. "God, you're beautiful."

"That's not going to distract me, but you get points for trying."

"I'm not tryna do anything. I'm telling you. You're gorgeous. Not just because of the dress, or the make up. You look just as good when you wake up all fuzzy in the morning. You're just... Beautiful, and you should know that."

Darcy was very close to ordering that they trot home when she caught sight of Skeletor herself. Her thin mouth was an unattractive peach gloss, she wore a white dress with a red sash over the slight belly bump, pronouncing it all the more. Like Darcy, she had chosen to accessorize to match the Captain's colours - big blue drops hung from her ears and she had a collar of blue rhinestones on her throat.

"What is the cow doing here?"

It was like Bucky could hear her - she would have to confirm later - because she could literally feel the heat of his stare go from the pretty red head he was charming the panties off of to her, then the blonde. Jessica would've heard the sharp question in the short proximity between them both, but made no facial reaction. All she did was look up at Steve with her mouth in an unhappy line.

"Hello, Steven."

"Hello, Jess." He swallowed. Darcy squeezed his arm. "How are you?"

"We're both doing fine." she nodded, confirming the unspoken question - she meant the baby and herself. Darcy scoffed. The woman glared at her.

"Don't fucking presume to look at me. If we weren't in such a public fucking place I would've smacked the crap out of you."

"You'd hit a pregnant woman?"

"You're _not pregnant_." Darcy snapped. "It doesn't make _sense_. See, I've got a friend, she's currently, _really_, pregnant, and at the same size as you and a couple months along, she's only just starting to show. You look like you've got a pillow strapped on."

Jessica lifted her nose at her.

"I was invited here," she said between her teeth. "As a show of goodwill. Quite clearly, I was mislead."

"Don't be like that." Steve said quietly. "Did you want to talk to me?"

"Not with_ her_ around."

"I'm not leaving." Darcy dug nails into him then. "Don't even think about it, bitch, he's _mine._"

"Ours." Bucky put a hand on the small of Steve's back, flanking his other side. "And if you think Darcy won't hit you, think again. She has a nasty right hook, and I'm speaking from experience."

Steve stared at the side of his head.

"Buck-"

"No, Steve, she ain't nothin' to say to you she can't chirp about." his glare gradually intensified until Jess had put both hands on her stomach and actively started to back away. She made a simpering noise, lifting a hand to her mouth, and turned her face away with no tears.

"It's 'tweet'," Darcy muttered. "And _oh my god_, I want your tongue in my mouth right now."

"Likewise." he took his hand from Steve's person and glanced around. "Now that she's gathered quite a little crowd, I'm gonna split for the bathrooms. You two do somethin' adorable and they'll forget all about the little hussy."

"Punk ass." Darcy corrected, and Bucky snickered before departing with a manly head nod to Steve that he didn't return.

"Steve?" she looked past his shoulder to the small assembled crowd, watching where Jessica went charging through people in one of the reflective surfaces. "Don't even think about her, okay? Come on, honey, look at me."

He did as he was told, looking world weary, suddenly very tired.

"You didn't have to speak like that to her." he murmured.

"Yes I did."

"No, you didn't. She's a person too."

"She's _vermin._"

"And if you ever hit her, you'd be on her level. You're better than that." he cupped her face in both hands. "You _know_ you're better than that."

"She deserves-" she protested, but he shook his head, looking progressively sadder.

"You're a lady, Darcy, and she's a lady too-"

"And what, I can't give her a dose of the Lewis right hook because I've got boobs?"

"No." he said gently. "That's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?" she cocked her head hard enough that it jerked out of his palm.

He searched her face, hands going to her tightly held fists that unwillingly smoothed under his coaxing.

"I don't want you to get hurt." he said softly. "Especially not on my behalf. Your being a lady is only part of it. I wouldn't want Bucky to get involved and I don't want you to do it either. It's my battle, and I can fight it without having to raise a hand."

"Psh. You and your _noble_." she pulled a face, flipped her hair to glare at the retreating blonde, the people still watching what they were going to do. None of the Avengers were in her sights, though the same couldn't be said in reverse. She turned her face to his shoulder and he put a warm hand on her spine.

"Do you wanna -?" he made a motion at the dance floor, bowing his head to her ear. "I don't really know how - that is, Bucky said 'adorable' but - I - If you want to go home that'd be okay too -"

"Solider, take a breath."

He did.

"Now, did you want to dance with me?"

"Y-Yes, ma'am."

She lifted her head and took his hand, though he lead her to the dance floor. No one else was on it - the music wasn't in the style of the modern, but of timeless smooth jazz. A lazy sax filled the air and the deep notes resonated in the tiles beneath her feet as she put arms around the back of his neck and pressed the length of her body up to his, skirt swishing about her ankles, twisting between his knees.

His adam's apple bobbed but her met her, arms winding about her waist. She was inches apart from his nose, breathing in the breaths he exhaled, the minty fresh toothpaste and apple scented shampoo. She couldn't help but beam at him when he took two small steps - they were the only ones in the room, swaying, nose to nose.

He released a breath that made the entirety of his body go lax. She wanted, very badly, to kiss him, but her red lips would mark his skin and she didn't want people to stare any more than they already were. The music was soothing, a sassy lullaby, and she vaguely wondered how it was making the chandelier tremble to tinkling. It was only a few long moment later, when Steve looked up at the roof, she realized the music was not the cause for the shaking.

The vibrations were coming through the floor and walls, humming slowly filling the air as the lights flickered on and off. There was an almighty boom, and like hundreds of tiny spiders, in poured the Red Skull.


	18. Chapter 18

For a long second, all that Darcy knew was that Steve's hands had clamped on her waist hard enough to make all the air in her lungs whoosh out of her mouth. Then he was using his behemoth shoulders as a shield, pulling her skull down to his chest as rubble rained down upon them.

Everything got real fast, real quick.

Steve took Darcy's hand and steered her through the crowd while the rest of the crowd were still in their various stages of screaming or shock still staring, trying to figure out what had happened; he wound through them and there stillness to put her on Thor's open side. The thunder god's big hand shot out to catch her arm as she went flailing in her heels, and held on, tucking her under a huge bicep.

"Look after my girl." Captain America said, and sprinted into the fray.

Jane reached across her lover's chest and took Darcy by the shoulder, staring wide eyed at her. Thor's hand was on Jane's belly, while his hammer flew into his palm of the opposing hand just above Darcy's head. He did not disagree with the order, but in the lingering silence it became blindingly apparent that Jane came first.

And with a baby in her belly, Darcy preferred it that way.

"I think..." Darcy said in a shaky voice, taking big breaths and squeezing the hand on her shoulder. "Bucky... was in the bathroom..."

The area where the bathroom once stood was now crushed under a titanic tank that was still rumbling, crushing the bricks and mortar underneath it. Shattered mirrors paved the ground, the long velvet curtains covering bodies and hindering others, blossoming stains on the white fabric while soldiers marched in through the new opening.

They were different, somehow - new tech, but the same insignia, the too-familiar red octopus emblazoned on their helmets and on their chests. Their faces were hidden behind gas masks, but they leveled guns at Steve and that was something he knew too well.

He picked up a circular table and flung it at them, knocking down a line of five that had taken their aim in his direction. Shots were being fired into the air, warning to the civilians that had all ran to bottle neck at the entrance, screaming and crying and clutching each other.

To his immediate left, the Iron Man suit was assembling around Pepper and flying her away. Tony had handfuls of gadgetry and was firing projectiles at whoever came closest to him, but none so much as looked in his direction.

Black Widow, ever weaponized, sprung from a handstand to land with a thigh either side of the solider nearest to Steve. With an artful swing he was dead and falling - she was onto killing the next one before he had hit the ground. A bullet hit Steve in the shoulder but he did not fall. He rounded on the next enemy and backhanded him unconscious with his unhurt arm.

"You're popular today." Clint mentioned, aiming an arrow that popped loudly, turned into a net, and captured three men. It electrified for a mere second, but it was long enough to weaken them to falling loosely on the ground.

"Lucky me." he picked up a chair and pulled it until it broke, using the legs to crack across heads. One part of his mind catalogued the fact that Tony's suit had just flown back and was assembling around him, the other was focused on barking orders at Clint who followed accordingly - the other focused primarily on the fact that he could hear Thor bellowing Darcy's name.

She was bolting for the fallen bathrooms, shouting something, screaming for -... _Bucky. _

"_No_." he said softly, and broke the chair leg over the next solider's chest. He vaulted tables and bodies and broke into a run, his eye on the girl in her billowing red dress. She had taken her shoes off, and was skipping over the pieces of shattered mirror, but she still left behind small smudges of red on the tiled floor.

Something behind the wall shifted. A large chunk of rubble bounced down, cracking into smaller pieces as it fell. She swung to the side but slid in her own blood and fell in a fantastic flourish of red chiffon, pooling around her body and distorted halo of hair.

"Barnes!" Darcy wasn't sure how she was breathing between the dress and the panic, but she must've been, because she was screaming, trying to push to her feet. "You get your ass out here, _right the fuck now_, or I'm going in, and when I get my hands on you-!"

"Darcy-" Steve caught her arm, spun her into his chest, picking her up as he did so, one arm bracing both thighs. She still searched wildly for him over her shoulder, though Steve had turned her to face him on purpose. "He's gonna be okay, he's gonna be _okay_, but you need to get to safety -"

"Don't tell me to get to safety!" she said shrilly, shoving at his shoulders. "Put me down, I'll find him myself!"

"I can't worry about both of you, Darce, I can't help Bucky if I gotta look after you too!" she looked down at him, hair a mess of knots and plaster hanging like a curtain around them both, eyes bright and wet, mouth trembling. "Darcy, baby, trust me, please."

She made a noise that denoted tears, then her gaze flicked and her mouth popped open.

"Steve-!"

He jumped to the side just as a large burst of light unleashed in the space they were standing. Her arms linked over his shoulders, and she lurched hard to one side, but he adjusted his stance and swung her around to his back so she had mounted him like a baby koala. Her knees dug into his waist, but he liked the affirmation that she was there, safe.

There were a semi circle of the soldiers backing Steve to the tank. He saw no faces, just gas masks, and the heavy squeal of metal grating metal. He knew by the way Darcy had cringed into him the nozzle of the giant barrel attached to the tank was now pointed at them.

"Well, that's not good."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious." she mumbled. "What do we do now?"

Clint was making tracks toward them, but not fast enough, even if his bow was drawn and he was flinging arrows faster than Steve could've shot bullets. Black Widow was dealing with her own ring of potential death, all flips of red hair and bare feet catching soldiers under their chins and between their legs - Tony was no where to be seen. Thor had just shot up through a hole in the ceiling with Jane in his arms - and Bruce had already been long gone by the time he'd arrived.

He was on his own.

There was an ungodly screaming noise as metal twisted. Something heavy slid down the shaft of the tank and hit the bent end with a loud, dull sounding thunk. Darcy gasped, Steve turned his head.

Bucky's suit was in tatters. One of his pant legs were completely AWOL, a nasty, heavily bleeding gash on his upper thigh. He was minus his suit jacket, grey-white sleeves bunched up around his forearms, his bio-mechanical arm shoving the barrel skyward.

He snapped his head around and saw the trouble, then took a massive jump and landed on the nearest guard.

Steve was fighting with both hands, now that Darcy hung on by herself. She, at one point, was almost pulled from Steve's spine but punched the offender in the mask and cracked the lenses that made for eyes.

"Steve - they - they're -!" she gasped, looking at her bloodied knuckles. "God fuck, that _hurt_!"

The sockets where the eyes should've been were filled with wires that fizzed upon contact with the air. The solider jerked around as if having a minor seizure and fell to its knees, then face down on the floor, twitching spasmodically.

"STARK!" Steve bellowed.

"Saw it, got it, on it!" rang in the Iron Man suit. He punched a button on his left forearm that made the air around them sing, but the soldiers only collectively twitched slightly to the left and continued their advances.

Thor flew back in and took out the enclosing circle nearest to the WW2 veterans, going instantly to aid Tony.

"Bucky," Steve slipped Darcy around to his front, holding her in typical bridal fashion. "I'm gonna need you to take Darce and help the people find their way out safely. Then you gotta go -"

"I got her." he gladly took the woman who wrapped eager arms around his shoulders, hiding her face in his neck. "But I ain't doin' the rest, Cap, you need me to -"

"I'm not askin' you, I'm tellin' you."

"You need me to help _fight._"

"You got no weapons, no kevlar -"

"Neither do you-!"

"You got a bloody wound-"

"So do you!" Bucky nodded to his shoulder, which once bore a bullet wound.

"Healed." he said flatly. "I'm the Captain, and I say-" A resounding boom opened the other wall. The roof trembled, then began to collapse in places around them. Tony flew up to brace the middle beam on his back, thrusters all pointing down, while Thor did the same for the other side.

"Guys, hate to interrupt," Darcy reminded them, in the middle of their heated stare down. "We're in the middle of something here?"

"Get her out." Steve repeated lowly. "And help the people."

"You go and help the people!" Bucky snarled, but Darcy whacked his chest.

"We have no time for shenanigans, Barnes, move your ass to the door!" she smacked him again. "March!"

Bucky's look implied he wanted to cause her grievous bodily harm, but he taking steps any way. He cast a dark look over his shoulder to the Captain, but he was already defending their backs, swinging hits and kicking robots to fly into what remained of the walls.

"Is your leg okay?" she asked him, arms squeezing as he ducked around two huge pieces of raining roof.

"Fine. It's just a scratch now."

"How's your head?"

"Nothin' hit my head." he frowned at her. "Why?"

"Oh, I just wondered why you were so slow. Usually it's because you get hit in the head. But I think you're just like that."

"You're so sassy when you're scared." She didn't deny it, kissing his jaw in reply, hiding her eyes in his collar. "Don't worry, gorgeous, we got it."

"You're gonna go back and help, right?"

"Like he's gonna stop me."

"Good." he found that most of the people were already out, that only those who were injured by the collapsing walls were left unconscious or injured behind. "You can put me down now. I've had enough of this 'letting the boys handle it' nonsense."

"Your feet are all cut up." he informed her.

"Well, no shit. I'm so glad I have two handsome, observant boys to call my own." she tapped his shoulder. "Put me down, I can hobble at worst. And if I help here, you can help there."

"He's gonna be pissed."

"I'll tell him I came back in when you turned around." she hissed upon impact with the floor, but smacked his hands away when he tried to lift her again. "I'm _fine_. Go save our Captain in distress before I do."

"I'd like to see that." he pressed a quick, hard kiss on her mouth. "But maybe another time."

She smacked his ass on the way past, then began to limp to the nearest groaning person with varying levels of enthusiasm.

* * *

The dramatics of the battle were this; it wasn't a battle at all, so much as a horde of monotonic robots trying to wound and drag Steve to the tank. That was all they were doing, moving slowly, repetitively, over to Captain America, who was mostly slinging them off by himself. Hawkeye had joined his solitary battle by the time Bucky got back, casually strolling through the minions that paid him absolutely no attention at all.

"Well, this is anti climatic."

Natasha swung through soldiers to meet him in the middle.

"Some could say the same about you." she purred, then promptly lifted her leg in a split kick and knocked the head off a prowling soldier.

"_Some_." he agreed, sending her a cheeky grin. "None currently present."

The fight, after that, had literally been Natasha and Clint having fistiscuffs with whomever Steve didn't get to first, while Thor held up the roof above the stragglers, Tony's heat seekers found no living bodies under him and dropped his end of the roof down to lend a hand where he felt necessary. He landed heavily on the tank that had driven through the wall and found it completely computer generated and cameras set up everywhere - he made about hacking it, but it imploded, filling with watery acid to ruin the tech.

Darcy got every other person out by herself, even the ones who weren't awake when she dragged them out by legs and hands. Eventually, seeing that the crisis was being averted, other random people came in to help her too, so she left them to that, waving to Thor, who still held up the ceiling.

She made her way through the glass, trying to navigate it as opposed to charging through it, but her navigation skills sucked and she ended up just sitting on the only remaining table, seeing as one of her super soldiers had decimated the rest.

"Hey." she said, swinging her legs slowly, lamenting the fact that her dress was stubbornly stuck to her bloody spots. Her hand, for example, was swollen and throbbing - she was unable to straighten or curl her fingers past what they were.

"Hey yourself." Bucky stood between her knees and bent to kiss her mouth. "How are you feelin'?"

"I ouch."

"Yeah, funny thing about war." he smoothed hand over her hair, dislodging crumbly pieces of mortar. "People get hurt."

"Was this war?"

"Think so. Seemed to be Steve's war."

"Uh huh." she let that sink into her brain, hands smoothing up his shirt. "Can we go home now?"

"Yeah. Pretty sure so." he kissed the side of her head, letting her drop her skull against his chest. "Hey, Cap? Can we go home now?" he craned his neck around Thor's bulk to see the super solider glaring his way already.

"What did you do now?" Darcy mumbled.

"Eh." he watched Steve grind his teeth then picked his way through the debris and over to them, hands falling into fists that developed a determined swing. He carefully righted a chair, taking the time to brush off glittering glass shards stuck in the cushion, then straightened himself, hands folding at the small of his back.

"Step away from Darcy." he said coldly.

"What the hell for?" Darcy sat up, one hand instantly curling around what was left of Bucky's shirt. The other made a valiant attempt - but she just yelped at the pain and smeared blood on his shoulder. "Ow!"

"Step away," Steve repeated. "Please."

"Uh oh. You bein' so polite..." but the sentence was cut short by the absolute boiling look he revived. Grudgingly, he stepped away from Darcy, shoulders squaring. "Problem?"

"Yeah, I got a problem." Steve said between hardly moving lips. "It's _you_."

"_Me_?" he cocked both brows. "What'd I do?"

"I gave you your orders and you outrightly defied me."

"Oh, Jesus, Steve, I thought I was in actual trouble."

The silence rang in Darcy's ears. Between both of them, she could feel a tension pulsing, enveloping her. She was already having difficulties breathing, but with that rage hanging so heavy in the air, it made it worse. She gulped, and for once, had no words to offer either man.

"You can't do that to me!" Steve snapped, recoiled from his own tone, and took a breath. He wiped a hand over his face like he could wipe away the furious expression, but it only smoothed it out into a frustration. "I told you to take Darcy to safety, and you left her in the door way-"

"I came back in-" Darcy started, to which he held up a hand.

"Don't lie to me, Darcy. I kept my eye on the both of you. It's part of being a good captain." he gave her an equally disappointed look, which was significantly harder to bare than the anger Bucky was getting. Darcy had strove her whole life to make people happy. It was not in her arsenal of things to cope well with.

"Leave her alone. She's fine. I'm fine-"

"Next time you _won't_ be fine!" Steve snapped, and that chair he had just stood up? He knocked it back over so hard it broke on impact with the floor. He appeared unaware of this movement, even if it made Darcy flinch and a large cracking noise. "Next time she won't be fine! I don't tell you to do things because I like bossing you around, I tell you to do things to keep you safe-"

"Like I can't-"

"I am your captain and you have to do as I tell you when we are at war -"

"Come off it-!"

"I've already lost you once, I will _not_ lose you again, you hear me?"

There was a long pause. Darcy had clapped one hand over her mouth to physically keep herself from intervening - she knew what Bucky had done was wrong, but she'd still do it again. Now she was looking on Steve, on his disappointment and his mourning, and she felt ill with guilt. His eyes were tiny blue fires, burning brightly. Bucky matched him with clear cut glass, searching for something like he was reading a book.

"Solider, I said, _do you hear me_?"

"Yes, Captain." Bucky tilted his head at him. "I hear you."

Darcy was trembling, hiccuping back her tears. She wasn't stupid. If they started throwing punches it would be up to Iron Man and Thor to sort them out, not her. She would need her taser and all her extremities, even some help from a mallet or something. Just her by herself would not do either of them anything but damage.

Bucky kicked rubble by his not-so-shiny shoe.

"You scared me, Bucky." Steve murmured, shoulders deflating. "I can't do what I gotta do to save people when I'm scared that my fella is in trouble."

"Like it's easy to charge in there and let you make all the calls." Bucky grumped back. "You're the first person a smart sniper's gonna aim. So I went looking for where I'd be if I were the enemy."

"I scoped the perimeter, Buck." Steve said patiently. "I knew there was no sniper."

"Yeah, well. I didn't." he shrugged, and only passingly saw Darcy, shaking, privately bawling while they hashed out their shit. "Ah, shit. C'mere, puddin'."

Darcy reached for him like a child, too sore and shaky to attempt walking. Bucky gathered her up around him, lifting her easily onto his arm, the other supporting her back. Steve pressed a kiss to her head, then to Bucky's cheek, and wrapped them up even further together. It was Darcy's favourite kind of sandwich, where none of her was showing, she was encased in her superheroes and everything was fine. Vaguely, she realized that Bucky had twined his fingers with Steve, and Steve was pressing small kisses to her cheek and temple.

Then she was more aware of the fact that the fallen wall opened up the world, that photos were being taken of them all, embracing as they were. She sighed and wriggled until someone gave up trying to hold her and she slid down Bucky like a particularly receptive jungle gym to land on the balls of her torn feet - Bucky and Steve were still holding hands, backs turned to the commotion.

Pepper was a solitary figure silhouetted by flashes of hundreds of cameras, her physicalities those of a woman with nothing left to say. Darcy swallowed, and wiped her face with her uninjured hand to rid it of tears, though she just smeared soot and dust over her cheeks.

"This whole night was to convince people that Bucky wasn't in... our little trio."

"Yeah?" Steve blinked at her, then cast a look over his shoulder and sighed a decidedly bad swear word.

Bucky had his eyes trained on her, unblinking, and pointedly unashamed. When Darcy thought back to how he had positioned the hug, she realized he had purposely hidden his own face in her chest.

He_ knew_ that people were watching, and was still protecting his identity.

"They can see all of us, now." she whispered.

"Yeah." Bucky said roughly. "So they can."


	19. Chapter 19

One time, when Darcy was visiting Jane in the tower - a few days after initially meeting Steve - there was a_ big thing_. Like, an Avengers, thing. Some mutant or something, no one ever told her, or the public, what had attacked them that particular time. But what was undoubtedly confirmed was that Steve got really badly hurt; he had been tossed from the top of the Statue of Liberty and hit the water hard enough to skip across it five times before sinking.

Dislocated, broken, strained and bloodied, he'd seen the health care professionals but there were nothing they could do but pop bones back into place and set his arm in a temporary cast and wait. Darcy, meanwhile, had coffee tipped on her by a nearly catatonic Jane and was on her way to a shower. Steve was also in the shower.

And between the noise of the water and the echoing of the battle still in his ears, Steve somehow didn't hear Darcy gasp when she opened the door.

He was black and blue all over, bones shifting, distorting his multicoloured skin. Darcy couldn't see anything sacred through the frosted glass, but there was blood and muck on the floor, all over his clothes, and the darkness and odd shapes where his body should've been clear and smooth.

It had broken her heart then, back when he wasn't hers.

Now the weariness of him, the careful way he separated from both her and Bucky and retreated to his room, it tore her to pieces.

Bucky rinsed the worst of his gore off and pulled on some loose fitting boxer shorts before joining her in the lounge. Darcy's feet had been tended by a medic, her hand not broken, but 'upset'. Apparently, she'd shifted something out of place, but it had slipped back in. She was told to deal with it - wrapped up tightly to prevent any more swelling and told not to touch, but it itched and it was making her palm sweat.

He lifted her legs by the back of her knee and sat under them, a favourite position of his to be in. He liked to rub her calves, particularly when they were smooth or freshly moisturized. They were neither this time, but he dug thumbs into them any way, for her peace of mind.

"You look upset, darlin'."

"I am."

"Why?"

"I miss Steve." she folded her arms across her chest, scowling at him, not because of him. He watched her with a carefully guarded expression, trying to gauge her.

"Do you wanna see him?"

"Does he want to see me?"

"He'll want to see you." he scoffed. "You're a sight for sore eyes, and you well know -"

"Will he see you?"

"He doesn't have selective blindness, far's I'm aware." he turned his face down to her legs, the wrapped feet dangling over his thigh. His mouth formed a thin line and for a second, his hands stilled - but he glanced back at her and cocked a half grin. "'Sides, I ain't wearin' a shirt and I owe him some trouble of the sexual kind."

Darcy smiled only briefly at the antics. That's all they were, antics, attempts to maintain his carefully constructed smart ass facade. But she could see him, now, better than she could before, how he paused and how he looked away from her when he was trying to hide things.

"You let the cameras take our photos." she accused softly. "You let them see us all together."

"Well, even if you aren't mine, Steve is." he said flatly. "'N' Pepper shoulda thought about that before she tossed you two out into the pool with all the sharks and left you to drown."

"She was trying to throw me to Steve as a life jacket." she murmured. "Like I said before, she was trying to show -"

"_True Love_. I got it the first time." he growled a noise, not aimed at her, just voicing general frustration. His hed lolled back against the couch, and he looked at her from under his lashes. She reached over with her uninjured hand and rubbed his stubbly jaw up to his hair line, where she threaded fingers through the stiff strands and tugged until he fell to have his head on her lap.

"It was because of the photo." Darcy reminded him, petting his gelled hair. "It had a woman in it?"

"But what if I truly loved him, huh?" he looked up at her, eyes impossibly huge for someone who made a living out of shooting people from a distance. "How would you feel if I hadda taken your place, let everyone schmooze on and on about how perfect me 'n' Steve were?"

"You are perfect." she told him, and dropped a quick kiss on the very centre of his forehead. "And you were doing your fair share of flirting, asshole, so don't start. At least I can trust Steve with you, and vice versa. That skank in the gold dress was asking for a Lewis Left hook, pow, right in the kisser."

He couldn't help but chuckle at her old time drawl. He pouted, and she pecked it, then gnawed on his lip a little until his hands started to move up her comfy sweat pants.

She withdrew, tucking her hair behind her ears, sitting back in the couch.

"You're still worried about Steve." he noted with a frown, to which she nodded slightly, the barest inclination of her head. He sat up, patting her thigh. "Want me to take you to his place?"

"Yeah." She stretched out arms, allowed herself to be lifted, wrapping her legs around his hips and rolling her body upon clamping around him. "That'd be good."

"Mm. It's already _good_." he nuzzled her cleavage, and waltzed them out of there.

It was such a short walk from their room to Steve's, and really, the chances of them being physically interrupted should've been slight. They were, however, by Clint and Natasha. Clint was wearing a sleeveless grey shirt with some long track pants, a sweaty towel around the back of his neck, and some kind of thick shake in his hand. Natasha, ever at his side, wore yoga gear and had a bottle of water in her hand. She said nothing, but rose a slow brow at Bucky's hands, bracing the girl by the ass. Clint slurped his shake with both eyebrows cocked at them as Bucky sauntered past.

"Barton."

"Barnes. Darcy."

"_Heeeeeyyy_, Clint."

He blinked at her as she twinkled her fingers at him over Bucky's shoulder.

"Have fun, kids."

"Will do." she blew him a kiss which he caught and held to his chest with a chuckle, glancing at Natasha, who was watching them go.

"Jesus Christ. Hormones. Remember those?" he scrubbed the back of his neck with his towel, shaking his head. "What the fuck are hormones? How old am I?"

"Old enough." Natasha informed him, and continued to walk in the opposite direction.

Darcy opened the door and Bucky bumped it closed with his foot, pressing open mouthed kisses to Darcy's neck and shoulders. She sighed, swept her hair out of the way, then promptly returned the favour by biting the muscle in his shoulder.

He hummed, lowering her onto Steve's pristine bed. He covered her for a long minute, sucking dark spots onto her throat, but her nerves for seeing the good Captain over whelmed her arousal, and he stood, glancing at the bathroom.

"I'll get him."

"Be nice."

"I'm always nice."

"Liar." she tossed a pillow at the back of his head that didn't so much as bounce off the end of the bed.

From the bed, when he opened the door, she could see straight inside; Steve was in the shower, just standing with his hands braced on the wall, head under the spray. The steam poured out from the door when Bucky opened it, but he had no reaction to the intruder or the fact that she called his name. The spy sighed, slipped out of his shorts with not one ounce of shame, and got into the glass box with him, putting slow, nearly timid hands on his mid-back.

When Steve didn't resist, he slid them around to his side, then slowly up to his chest. He laid his face down on his shoulder and waited, thumbs stroking over slippery membrane until one of Steve's hands patted his, and turned the water off.

"Get me a towel, please." Bucky wrapped it around his shoulders, rubbing his spine over the corse material. "Thank you."

"Welcome." he hooked a finger over the hem and dragged it down to press a small kiss on the top of his spine. "Darcy wants to see you."

"And you?"

"I want you to see me." he rubbed him over the towel again, letting it loose so Steve could navigate it around his body, brushing off stray drops of water while Bucky inspected the length of his spine.

There was still a healing bullet wound in the back of Steve's shoulder he hastened to touch, feeling the slight pucker of ruined flesh. Even if he knew that it was already healing, it made him feel too many things to give a single name to, none of them good. Steve wrapped the towel about his waist and stepped out of the tub, grabbing a smaller towel to dry his hair briefly, the muscles in his shoulders flexing.

"Darcy thinks you're gonna be mad."

"I am mad." Steve turned around, eyes like ice. "Just not at her."

"So you're mad at me?" both his eyebrows shot up. They were speaking lowly, now, so quietly Darcy was leaning forward to better hear them.

"I told you to do something, and not only did you ignore me, you put_ her_ in harm's way." his mouth was in an unimpressed line. "Look at her, Buck. Just _look_ at her. She doesn't have the healing. She doesn't have the training. You said to me once that she was like you, and that she didn't back down easily, but you still left her by herself in the middle of a battle. What the_ hell_ were you thinking?"

"I was thinking it'd be better I left her there and kept an eye on her, rather than put her outside and have her walk right back in. Wouldn't put it past her." he leaned back against the wall, folding his arms across his chest. Steve didn't so much as blink at his wet, naked offering.

"If you had've let her get hurt, you would've dealt with me." Steve said simply, yanking a towel from the peg on the wall and tossing it at Bucky's middle. "Next time I give you an order concerning Darcy, so help you God, you'd better listen. You understand?"

"Got it." he said seriously, but privately thought that he would be protecting Darcy in his own way, no matter what Steve thought best.

"Still love me?" Darcy said from the bedroom, propped up in his pillows, both bandaged feet over the side of the mattress.

"I don't think it's possible not to love you." Steve replied, and studied the tired rings around her eyes, the messy hair, wrapped hand held aloft on her chest.

"What about me?"

"Shut up, Bucky." he said over his shoulder, throwing his hair towel at the spy's face.

Bucky ducked under it and unhitched the towel, shoving him back on the bed. Out of reflexive modesty, Steve closed his legs and turned his body to the side, pulling back onto the covers with a half scowl aimed at the brunette.

"It's been a long day," he said, Captain America sure. "And I think we all need to sleep before we wear ourselves out."

"I would like to_ try _and wear you out." Darcy objected. "You're superheros, I don't think I could even if we tried. So we should try. For... Science."

"No, we shouldn't." Steve said patiently, looking over his shoulder at her. "Darcy, you look ready to drop. You've just been through your first battle _and _you're hurt. I ain't gonna participate, but, uh, I guess, if you two wanna -"

"No." she said quickly. "I want you."

Steve pulled the rest of the way back onto the mattress, kicking the covers down and putting his arm around Darcy's shoulder.

"I want you too, beautiful. I just want you better first."

"Oh." Bucky was disappointed, naturally, but cocked a brow at the size of Steve's bed and regulation sheets. "Well, c'mon, let's go back to our room, then."

"Nope." Darcy put her head to Steve's shoulder, closing her eyes. "It smells like Steve in here. Like _America._"

"Ha ha." Steve said, but managed a smile for her, rubbing her upper arm.

"Well, how're we all gonna fit in there?"

"We'll find a way." Already, between the width of his shoulders and her awkward diagonal legs, there was a struggle for room. Bucky studied their bodies, the tender way in which Steve leaned over to kiss the top of Darcy's head, but how his eyes lingered on the hard panes of his chest, and belly button.

"Well. Captain's orders, I guess." he shrugged his shoulders and climbed in on Darcy's other side, already out of alignment with their usual sleeping positions.

He found the curve of her waist, and Steve's hip beyond it, and curled into her side, exhaling a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding. It had been a long night, from a mere six pm to ten thirty, and while he wasn't exhausted, Darcy barely tickled the back of his skull for a minute before her fingers went limp, and she was sleeping.

"Good night, Bucky." Steve said softly.

"G'night." he stroked the hard muscle under his hand and felt Steve pet his wrist in reply.

And then, the Winter Solider found peace for the night.

* * *

UPDATE TOMORROW

SO SORRY


	20. Chapter 20

It was a particular kind of hell, being aware of a repeated dream whilst still in the midst of it.

The events already scripted; the hurt always known, but still so fresh, still such an easily made wound, conjured of her own psyche. The reoccurring nightmare interrupts a much more pleasant dream, one where Darcy might be shopping with Jane.

She knows that it is mundane, that they are doing something utterly regular, but it pleases her in it's normalcy and she enjoys it. The train wreck that is the nightmare t-bones the lovely contentment she'd long since fallen into, and kicks her right in the teeth.

Her father's face.

Her mother's hands.

She sees her mother's hands are in fists on her lap, while her father's face is giving her a stern look across the table. In the very barest form, she recognises the memory, but it does not change the course that has been chartered, even if she wills it to. The outcome never changes.

"Darcy." her father's cheeks are red, and his moustache is bristling. He is not happy, though he keeps his voice and tone reasonable. "Do you want to tell me your side of the story?"

She shakes her head, even if she wants to tell him it is not her fault. Her mother heaves a long, silent sigh, because she knows, just as well as Darcy does, what is about to happen.

"Okay then." he stands. "I'm getting my belt. Do you have anything you want to say?"

Silence. She cannot speak. Her hands are sweating and her feet are swinging but she can't run, even if energy consumes her to move, to say something, do something.

In reality, her father hit her with his belt exactly once, and once only. It was for stealing his credit card at fifteen, for what she can't remember. Shoes, maybe? An iPod? He threatened her with it often enough in childhood that it became her norm, keeping her in the lines where she'd otherwise stray.

This is where the memory morphs, becomes nonsense based on the threads of truth; the stirring worry of a young girl's over active mind. She had, in the real world, popped out of her chair and started packing a bag, and ran away for a few hours. It had been over something trivial... she'd punched some bully in the mouth or something. It wasn't all that bad.

But the dream never took that into account.

She sits and waits as his shadow moves away, falling over her before he leaves the room to collect the leather strap he'll beat her with. She starts crying, heaving, trying to draw breath and utter her side of the story, to give her best defense, to try and justify what she had done, but no words come. Her mother is sitting there, defeated, shaking her head.

"Where did I go wrong?" she says. "What did I do to deserve this?"

Darcy tries to say sorry, and that she'll be better. She starts to believe the beating she'll get is what's good for her, that it'll make her parents love her, make her behave the way she should.

"Darcy, hold out your hands."

Her tiny, sweaty, shaking hands go up on the table. Her mother's hands unfurl and she turns Darcy's palms up, stroking kindly over the red indents her little nails have made on her hands.

She starts begging but it's incomprehensible blubbering. She has the distinct impression that if she can speak, if she can say but a single word, the dream, will change. Darcy Lewis has always used her words as weapons - she is in the worst possible place, to lack her speaking ability.

Then, as dreams typically go, her mother's next logical step is to take her needle nosed pliers and start to twist her thin, bitten nails off. From the nail beds sprout white hair that spiders lay their eggs in. It is the law in the dream; her mother will make her keep the eggs until they hatch and bury under her skin. Darcy still can't move or run or speak. She just cries, and trembles, and does as she is told.

Which is why the nightmare is such a terrible one.

The few times she goes further into the freakish world in her mind, her kitchen window will shatter when her mother closes the door to get her father, and the shards will cut her, slice her up as they rain down over her. She'll get glass in her eyes but won't be able to get it out without her fingernails.

Vaguely, Darcy thinks that she's walked over more glass in the last few weeks than her entire life.

She thinks it's a metaphor for what she's been doing with the boys.

And then she wakes up to them.

* * *

Darcy woke up with her arms trapping Steve's arm to her chest and Bucky's thigh clamped between her knees. Steve's forearm was nestled between her boobs, one big hand bracing her chest, and she saw that Bucky was holding onto her face, brows drawn together in worry.

"Darcy, Darcy," he said gently, stroking careful fingertips over her cheekbones. "Wake up, baby doll, wake up."

"Ow." She makes a strangled noise. "My _hand_."

The bandaged limb is squeezing Steve's wrist, blood seeping through the thick layers of wrapping. She feels it throbbing, the steady ache in her knuckles. She turns her head slightly and Bucky pulls away the strands of hair stuck to her salty wet face.

"What do you need?" Steve says quietly, putting his nose to her hairline. "You tell me, sweetheart, I'll get it for you."

"I need-" she takes a deep, shaking breath. "I'm okay."

"That's not what he said." Bucky reminds her, moving his hand to pry hers from doing further damage.

"I'm _okay!"_ she told him, more herself, shooting him a dirty look. She snatched her hand back from his and sat up, shoving Steve's arm away from her too because she was emotional and scared and to reaffirm that she could. She raked her uninjured hand over her head, pulling it back to study the shaking nails to see that they were still there, still intact.

"Darcy..." Steve started with something assuredly adorable and placid, but she wasn't in the mood. She could move about as gracefully as a sack of rotten potatoes and felt just as crash hot as she fell from the bed and onto the floor, her knee smacking the wooden floor boards before she got up, wobbly on stinging feet.

"Where the hell're you goin'?" Bucky tossed back the covers and made to leave but Steve grabbed his arm. "We can't just -"

"We can just." Darcy stormed out of the room as angrily as she could. "She don't want us, right now. Leave her be."

"But -"

The front door slammed.

"Leave her be, Buck." his fingers tightened a fraction, then slowly released, one digit at a time, as if willing him were enough to keep him there. Bucky was not happy to be there, but he did settle back on the mattress. Steve reached over and draped the covers on Bucky's legs, trying to keep him somewhat decent.

"D'you hear what she was sayin'?"

"Course I did." was Steve's calm reply. "That's her business. She will tell us if she needs to."

"I never heard her cry like that." Bucky mumbled, rubbing his eyes. He moved his hand to his chest, let out a short sigh. "Maybe I should go -"

"Buck." Steve's hand weighed him down, pressing into his abdomen. Big blue eyes softened the glare they received - that one hand rubbed a small circle around his belly button, then swept up the valleys and mountains of his torso. "Stay with me, a little bit."

"You sure know how to charm a fella." Bucky mumbled, and opened up his arm so Steve could use it as a cushion. He pressed a warm kiss to the middle of Steve's forehead, and felt himself relax unwillingly. He'd be lucky to have achieved more than two hours restful sleep, in that little bed, with his awkwardly situated lovers and their sticky hot bodies.

"Whatcha thinkin'?"

"'Bout you." he rubbed his hand up Steve's side. "I don't think about much else. Maybe Darcy."

"Director Fury still only wants you in the Avengers?"

"What makes you say that?" he cracked open an eye to assess his expression. He found only general interest, maybe a trickle of worry. "Yeah, he says I should stick about and help you out. I think he's seen me and Tasha working together."

"It is remarkable, the way you sense her. You two team up and I don't even have to worry about telling you what to do. Just where to go."

"We have a long history of violence. Some of it's even the good kind. I was never sure, with her, what body part might come to hit me in the mouth."

"_Bucky_." Steve scolded. "I don't need to hear that!"

"What? It's true." he snickered at the look on his face, and nudged his thigh with his knee. "So. Are you recovered yet? Cuz I got all wound up last night and you decided sleep was a better option."

"Darcy needed to sleep." Steve reminded him, but ran his palm up the inside of one thigh.

"I promised you trouble, Captain." Bucky mused, cocking a slow brow. He shifted so no part of him was trapped under the Captain and shifted Steve by the hips onto his back. "And you should know, I'm good for my word."

"Buck-"

"Just be quiet a second, would you?"

Steve stopped protesting the same second Bucky kissed the head of his penis, but that wasn't to say he went quiet, at all.

* * *

"...In other news, the ex but now pregnant girlfriend of Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, has finally posted her name decisions on Twitter. She said if it was a boy, it'd be John, and if it were a girl, Amy. Very nice, very pretty. I like it. I like them both, actually, both seem to fit the offspring of America's most patriotic hero."

"Sure they do. 'Amy' ain't too bad, it's a cute girl name. But John, that's a name with punch."

"It _has_ been confirmed that Nike offered her over three million dollars to pre-name her kid 'Nike'."

"No way!"

"Yeah, I heard that."

"Yup. True. On her Facebook she posted the documents that were sent to her. The uh, caption here reads:'_How disgraceful. Trying to buy the right to name my baby. No one, not even Captain America himself, will name my baby but me_.' Ooh, them's fightin' words."

"They are indeed! Gotta say, girl's got moxie."

"She sure does! I wouldn't have the balls to out Captain America's secret identity, you know?"

"Oh, don't even, that's the wrath of a woman scorned talking. I bet she wouldn't have done it had _she_ broken up with _him_."

"Yeah, but the fact that she showed up to that Stark event to make nice with the baby daddy, had to watch them dancing together - especially with_ that_ girl, in _that_ red dress - that means a lot, you know? That took guts. I like her."

"Yeah, then the robot soldiers, which she went ahead and fought with a chair."

"Like a lion tamer?"

"According to whom!"

"To her. She said that they started to swarm her and that she fended for the both of their lives."

"With a chair?"

"Yes."

"And no one saw?"

"People saw, they're coming forward to confirm it now."

"Not_ one_ person got footage of it?"

"They were being attacked, I don't think they had time to think to whip out the ole StarkPad and film what was goin' on."

"They did during the Battle of New York... Yeah, exactly. I'm calling it, I think she's a no good, dirty rotten, liar. You saw the Captain's face; that's not a face that skips out on a baby."

"The Devil's a handsome man, still makes him evil as sin. Not that I'm sayin' Captain America's the Devil. I'm sayin' he's pretty... It doesn't make him innocent. He's a man too, you know."

"Yes, we're well aware. Those pants ain't got a lot of room for those uh... spangled bits."

"I'm frankly surprised he managed to get anyone pregnant when he's so tightly bound like that."

"Oh no you didn't!

"Yes she did! Okay, well, that's enough of that! Let's get some feedback from our listeners here: what do you think? Do you think that _SweetJess89_ is all about the baby? Will our dear Captain Rogers ever go back to the mother of his child? What do you think about the baby names? Let us know by dialling 1800MIXFIX, and we'll start taking callers...nnnnow."


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